Pakistan drop Babar and Rizwan for five T20s against New Zealand

Pakistan dropped captain Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam for the T20 series against New Zealand and rewarded several domestic performers for the five-match series starting on March 16.

Salman Ali Agha will lead the side with all-rounder Shadab Khan as the vice-captain. Salman also led Pakistan to a 2-1 win in the T20 series against Zimbabwe late last year.

Rizwan was retained as skipper for the three ODIs against New Zealand starting March 29, and the squad also included Babar.

However, selectors have rung in several changes in the ODI squad after Pakistan made an early exit from the Champions Trophy, losing to both New Zealand and India. It finished fourth in its group after its last game was washed out against Bangladesh.

Fast bowlers Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi are part of the T20 squad, but were dropped for the ODIs. 

Top-order batters Kamran Ghulam and Saud Shakeel were also dropped but opener Abdullah Shafique was recalled after selectors ignored him for the Champions Trophy because he had made three successive ducks in South Africa.

Openers Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub are still recovering from injuries and neither left-handed batters was considered for the eight white-ball games in New Zealand.

"We need to play fearless and aggressive cricket in the T20 format and that’s why we have brought in new players,” Pakistan interim head coach Aaqib Javed told reporters on Tuesday.

"Nowadays teams are scoring over 200 in T20 cricket. We also need batters who could utilize the first six overs of the batting powerplay and play big shots.”

Javed's contract initially ran until the Champions Trophy, but will continue as the Pakistan Cricket Board is still searching for a full time head coach.

Batters Abdul Samad and Hasan Nawaz along with fast bowler Mohammad Ali are the three uncapped players in the T20 squad.

Samad scored 115 runs at a strike-rate of 166.67 in the domestic T20 Champions Cup while Nawaz scored 312 runs and finished as the second highest run-getter in the tournament. 

Ali, a right-arm Pakistan test fast bowler, topped the bowling chart in the same tournament with 22 wickets.

T20 squad: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan, Abbas Afridi, Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Hasan Nawaz, Irfan Khan, Jahandad Khan, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Haris, Omair Bin Yousaf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem and Usman Khan.

ODI squad: Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Salman Ali Agha, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Akif Javed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Imam-ul-Haq, Irfan Khan, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Sufiyan Muqeem and Tayyab Tahir.

Associated Press