Pakistan big-hitter Sharjeel Khan: “I have been welcomed well and also been given a lot of support by the management and team – it’s a good environment and I am feeling very well”

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Pakistan batsman Sharjeel Khan has said no one was against him returning to the national team.

Sharjeel served two-and-a-half years of a five-year ban he received for his involvement in a spot-fixing scandal in the 2017 Pakistan Super League (PSL), but hasn’t received any backlash after being picked in the T20 team for the tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The 31-year-old now faces the prospect of making his international comeback after last playing for the national team in January 2017.

In the National T20 Cup, Sharjeel scored 233 runs in 11 matches for Sindh, which included two half-centuries, at an average of 21.18 and a strike-rate of 122.63.

As for the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, he amassed 656 runs in eight games, which included two hundreds and four half-centuries, at an average of 43.73.

He followed that up with 179 runs in seven matches in the Pakistan Cup, which included a top score of 108, at an average of 25.57 and a strike-rate of 127.85.

Most recently, Sharjeel represented the Karachi Kings in the PSL. He was in superb form before the tournament was postponed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) as he was the third-highest run-scorer with 200 runs in five matches, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 40 and a strike-rate of 170.94.

He also had the most sixes with 15. Lahore Qalandars star Mohammad Hafeez was in second place with 12, while Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi, who was playing for the Kings, was in third place with 11.

“All these players I am with are ones I have been playing in domestic cricket and I have been welcomed well and also been given a lot of support by the management and team – it’s a good environment and I am feeling very well,” he was quoted as saying by PakPassion.

Pakistan will play three ODIs and four T20 Internationals against South Africa before heading to Zimbabwe for two Tests and three T20 Internationals.

Pakistan will depart for South Africa on March 26 and the tour will commence on April 2 and conclude on April 16. The ODI series will be played first.

The men in green will then head to Zimbabwe on April 17, but the dates for the matches have yet to be confirmed.

However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) noted that the national team will travel back to Lahore from Bulawayo on May 12.

Pakistan’s T20 Squad: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Haider Ali, Danish Aziz, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Usman Qadir, Hasan Ali, Arshad Iqbal.

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