Rashid Latif included Fawad Alam in his squad for the first Test against England Pakistan cricket
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Rashid Latif included batsman Fawad Alam in his squad for the first Test against England in Manchester.
Fawad, who last played Test cricket in November 2009, was part of Pakistan’s squad for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka and first Test against Bangladesh, but didn’t feature in any of those matches.
Many people have called for Fawad to feature in the three-Test series against England, especially after his impressive performance in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, where he accumulated 781 runs in 10 matches for Sindh, which included four centuries and two fifties, at an average of 71.
Latif also picked Mohammad Rizwan as the wicketkeeper over Sarfaraz Ahmed and Yasir Shah as the lone specialist spinner.
He didn’t include veteran seamer Sohail Khan in the side, even though the 36-year-old dominated in the two four-day intra-squad practice matches in Derby.
Sohail took five-fors in both matches, which is likely to boost his chances of being picked in the playing XI.
“They will go with six batsmen, Rizwan as wicketkeeper, three fast bowlers and Yasir Shah as [the] spinner. Shan Masood can also bowl medium pace, so you can use him [for] 6 to 8 overs while spreading the field,” Latif said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricket Pakistan. “Currently, we don’t have an all-rounder that we can depend on.
“Shaheen [Afridi] and [Mohammad] Abbas will take new ball, while Naseem Shah will bowl with the old ball.”
Pakistan are scheduled to play three Tests and three T20 Internationals against England, with the first Test starting on August 5 in Manchester and the T20 series beginning on August 28 at the same venue.
Rashid Latif’s playing XI for the first Test against England: Abid Ali, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (C), Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Yasir Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah
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