The Pakistan cricket team on Saturday afternoon announced its 12-member squad to take on India at the ICC T20I World Cup 2021 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on October 24. Babar Azam would lead the side while Shadab Khan would be his deputy. The squad also includes the experienced trio of Fakhar Zaman, Mohammed Hafeez and Shoaib Malik.
Meanwhile, the wicket-keeping duties have been assigned to Mohammed Rizwan and former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has not been included in the team. The squad, on the other hand, has three pacers — Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf.
The 12-member squad also includes all-rounder Imad Wasim and middle-order batsman Asif Ali.
India and Pakistan have locked horns with each other five times at T20I World Cups since its inception in 2007 with the Men in Blue getting an upper hand over their arch-rivals on all occasions. This time too, several cricket experts and pundits have claimed that Virat Kohli’s India will beat their arch-rivals, continuing their unbeaten record against Pakistan at the World Cups.
Meanwhile, Kohli has played down the “hype” over his side’s match against Pakistan, saying it’s “just another match”. “I have just approached this game as another game of cricket and I know there is a lot of hype around this game, more so with ticket sales and demands of tickets,” he said at a press conference.
The 32-year-old believes that one needs to be professional and play the game in the right spirit as they would do with every match.
“Apart from that, I don’t think we can make anything extra out of this game and for us it’s a game of cricket that has to be played in right spirit, in the way we know we can,” he said.
“Yes, the environment you can say is different from outside and from fans’ point of view, definitely more excitement in the air but from a players’ point of view, we try to stay as professional as we can and always approach the game in the most normal way possible,” he added.
Following is Pakistan’s 12-member squad for the match against India at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the UAE:
Babar Azam (captain), Mohammed Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammed Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf.