There’s a familiar look, and yet a few new faces, in the two limited-overs squads Pakistan named late on Thursday for next month’s tour of the West Indies and the United States.
First the headline calls. Shaheen Shah Afridi, rested for the trip to Bangladesh, is fit again and listed in both the ODIs and the T20Is. Hasan Nawaz, 22, earns his maiden ODI call-up on the back of a frankly bonkers start to international cricket: two first-ball ducks, then the fastest T20I hundred by a Pakistani, all inside three nights last March. Chief selector Wahab Riaz – who spoke for barely ten minutes before leaving the room – said simply, “We like what we’ve seen and think Hasan’s game can travel.”
The ODI leg – three matches at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy on 8, 10 and 12 August – is Pakistan’s first in that format since November. Head coach Mike Hesson admitted he would have preferred more T20 cricket with a World Cup looming, but added, “there’s value in fifty-over rhythm, too”, so the compromise was to keep the squad tight at 16.
Quick-bowler Hasan Ali also returns in both lists after a productive stint with Birmingham Bears in the T20 Blast. His last ODI came at the 2023 World Cup; a sore back then cost him the early part of the PSL. “I’m hungry to play all formats again,” he said at the airport in Lahore.
Pakistan have trimmed some of the newer names who toured Bangladesh. Salman Mirza and Abbas Afridi are out; Mohammad Nawaz and Hussain Talat stay in, largely for their all-round value. Hesson likes options at seven and eight, and Nawaz’s left-arm spin plus clean hitting keeps him relevant.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are back in their more familiar 50-over shirts after sitting out the Bangladesh T20Is. Babar, asked whether intermittent breaks disrupt batting rhythm, shrugged: “I’d rather be fresh than fried.”
The three-match T20I series comes first – 31 July, 2 and 3 August – at Central Broward Park, Lauderhill. Logistics are not ideal: Pakistan end the Dhaka tour on the 24th, grab two nights at home, then fly again on the 27th. Afridi laughed when someone suggested jet-lag might dull his pace, “It’s the same for everyone, isn’t it?”
Underlying all this is the PCB’s current obsession with T20 cricket. They axed an ODI leg against Bangladesh in May to shoe-horn extra T20Is, though those were cancelled once the calendar jammed up. This West Indies rubber survived partly because broadcast contracts were already signed, partly because Hesson quietly argued a young side still needs exposure to the longer white-ball game.
The squads, as released, read:
T20Is: Salman Ali Agha (capt), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir.
ODIs: Mohammad Rizwan (capt & wk), Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Salman Ali Agha, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Usama Mir, Abrar Ahmed.
On paper, the pace battery looks healthy: Afridi, Rauf and Naseem Shah can all touch 145kph, while Hasan Ali offers swing with the new ball. Spin remains more of a patch-work, Shadab’s leg-spin still the main threat, Abrar and Usama both attacking but occasionally wild.
The batting order is harder to pin down, especially in ODIs. Rizwan is likely to open with Imam, freeing Babar to control things at three, yet Hesson is open to sliding Saud Shakeel up to tackle spin early. “I’m not over-thinking it,” the coach said. “Good players adjust.”
Pakistan land in Miami on 27 July, squeeze in three training sessions, then it all starts again under the Florida heat. It feels relentless, and the squad is young enough to ride that wave. Whether the balance between preparation for a T20 World Cup and keeping the ODI skills alive is quite right, we’ll only find out once the first new ball swings next month.
