The PCB has announced the leaders and tentative squads for the Champions Cup.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has officially declared the leaders of the five Champions One-Day Cup teams, along with the tentative squads for the next event scheduled to take place in Faisalabad from 12th to 29th September.
The captains were designated by the five team mentors: Misbah-ul-Haq (Wolves), Saqlain Mushtaq (Panthers), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Dolphins), Shoaib Malik (Stallions), and Waqar Younis (Lions).
Saud Shakeel, the vice captain of Pakistan’s Test team, has been chosen as the captain of the Dolphins. Shaheen Shah Afridi, the previous captain of Pakistan’s T20I team, will lead the Lions. The Panthers, on the other hand, will be captained by Shadab Khan, the former vice captain of Pakistan’s white-ball team.
Mohammad Haris, the captain of Pakistan Shaheens, will lead the Stallions, while Mohammad Rizwan, the former vice-captain in all formats, will captain the Wolves.
The Champions One-Day Cup will showcase the nation’s premier cricketers. The competition will be contested in a round-robin format, consisting of 50 overs per match.
All matches will begin at 3 pm, with the exception of the Lions vs Panthers encounter on 16 September, which will commence at 9:30 am.
The event will end with three playoff matches spanning four days, reaching its climax with the final on Sunday, 29 September.
The PCB has additionally declared tentative squads for the five teams. The team mentors picked these individuals through a draft procedure from a pool of 150 candidates, which was provided by the PCB after conducting fitness tests. Fitness was one of the main factors considered in the selection of domestic contracted players.
The players who are under central contracts will be subjected to fitness assessments in Faisalabad on the 7th and 9th of September.
Among the group of 150 players, 125 were standout performances in the previous three domestic seasons. The remaining 25 players were chosen as wildcards, primarily based on their expertise and achievements while representing Pakistan, Pakistan Shaheens, and Pakistan Under-19 teams during the past three years.
Every team consists of currently centrally contracted players. The following items are:
The individuals mentioned include Saud Shakeel, Faheem Ashraf, and Sarfaraz Ahmed, who are associated with dolphins.
The lions on the team are Abdullah Shafique, Aamir Jamal, Imam-ul-Haq, and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
The Panthers team consists of Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, and Usama Mir.
The Stallions consist of the following players: Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Tayyab Tahir, and Zaman Khan.
The Wolves team consists of Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Salman Ali Agha, and Shahnawaz Dahani.
Centrally contracted players that are not included in the teams are Mohammad Nawaz (due to personal reasons), Imad Wasim (unavailable), Arshad Iqbal, Hasan Ali, Ihsanullah, and Mohammad Wasim Jnr (currently undergoing rehabilitation).
Aside from Imad Wasim, who is currently participating in the CPL, the following players have chosen not to participate in the Faisalabad tournament: Ahmed Shehzad, Azam Khan (CPL), Haris Sohail, Mohammad Amir (CPL), Mohammad Abbas (county cricket in the UK), Mohammad Ilyas, and Umar Akmal.
Fakhar Zaman, who is now participating in the CPL, is scheduled to come back on 10 September.
Additional players now receiving rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) are Ahsan Ali, Athar Mahmood, Rizwan Hussain, and Zeeshan Zamir, along with Arshad Iqbal, Hasan Ali, Ihsanullah, and Mohammad Wasim Jr..
Following their failure to pass their fitness tests, nine domestic contracted players were dropped from the Champions One-Day Cup squads.
Jr.The individuals are Ali Shafique, Ali Zaryab, Arif Yaqoob, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Rameez Jnr, Saad Baig, Rameez Aziz, Sharjeel Khan, and Shawaiz Irfan.
Four cricketers, who have just cleared their fitness tests and finished their rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy, are now ready to return to competitive cricket. These cricketers are Hunain Shah from the Lions team, Sameen Gul and Sufiyan Moqim from the Dolphins team, and Shahnawaz Dahani from the Wolves team.
Champions One-Day Cup Squads (to be trimmed to 15 players on September 10th)
The Dolphins team consists of the following players: Saud Shakeel (captain, Karachi), Aftab Ibrahim (Karachi), Asif Ali (Faisalabad), Awais Ali (Gujranwala), Faheem Ashraf (Kasur), Kashif Ali (Rawalpindi), Mir Hamza (Karachi), Mohammad Huraira (Sialkot), Mohammad Abbas Afridi (Peshawar), Muhammad Akhlaq (Kamoki), Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (Karachi), Muhammad Riazullah (Peshawar), Noman Ali (Hyderabad), Qasim Akram (Lahore), Sameen Gul (Jamrud), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Karachi), Sahibzada Farhan (Peshawar), Sufiyan Moqim (Kotli), Umar Amin (Rawalpindi), and Usman Qadir (Lahore).
Sarfaraz Ahmed is the mentor.
The Lions team consists of the following players: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain, representing Peshawar), Abdullah Shafique (representing Sialkot), Aamir Jamal (representing Islamabad), Aamer Yamin (representing Multan), Faisal Akram (representing Multan), Hassan Nawaz (representing Islamabad), Hunain Shah (representing Lahore), Imam-ul-Haq (representing Lahore), Imran Butt (representing Lahore), Khushdil Shah (representing Bannu), Mohammad Asghar (representing Karachi), Muhammad Irfan Khan (representing Mianwali), Mohammad Taha (representing Karachi), Omair Bin Yousuf (representing Karachi), Rohail Nazir (representing Islamabad), Shahab Khan (representing Mardan), Sharoon Siraj (representing Sahiwal), Sirajuddin (representing Bajaur), and Waqar Hussain (representing Okara).
The mentor is Waqar Younis.
The Panthers team consists of the following players: Shadab Khan (captain, representing Islamabad), Abdul Wahid Bangalzai (representing Quetta), Ahmed Bashir (representing Lahore), Ali Asfand (representing Faisalabad), Ali Raza (representing Sheikhupura), Amad Butt (representing Sialkot), Arafat Minhas (representing Multan), Azan Awais (representing Sialkot), Haider Ali (representing Attock), Mohammad Hasnain (representing Hyderabad), Mohammad Umar (representing Karachi), Mohammad Zeeshan (representing Faisalabad), Mubasir Khan (representing Rawalpindi), Rehan Afridi (representing Khyber), Rizwan Mehmood (representing Hyderabad), Saim Ayub (representing Karachi), Umar Siddiq (representing Lahore), Usama Mir (representing Sialkot), Usman Khan (representing Karachi), and Usman Salahuddin (representing Lahore).
Mentor: Saqlain Mushtaq
The Stallions team consists of the following players: Mohammad Haris (captain, from Peshawar), Abrar Ahmed (from Karachi), Adil Amin (from Peshawar), Azam Khan (from Peshawar), Babar Azam (from Lahore), Haris Rauf (from Islamabad), Hussain Talat (from Lahore), Jahandad Khan (from Rawalpindi), Junaid Ali (from Lahore), Maaz Ahmad Sadaqat (from Peshawar), Mehran Mumtaz (from Rawalpindi), Mohammad Ali (from Sialkot), Mohammad Amir Khan (from Swat), Saad Khan (from Hyderabad), Shamyl Hussain (from Islamabad), Shan Masood (from Karachi), Tayyab Tahir (from Sarai Alamgir), Ubaid Shah (from Lahore), Yasir Khan (from Rawalpindi), and Zaman Khan (from Mirpur).
Shoaib Malik is a mentor.
The following players are part of the Wolves team: Mohammad Rizwan (captain, Peshawar), Fakhar Zaman (Abbottabad), Abdul Samad (Faisalabad), Akif Javed (FATA), Ali Usman (Multan), Bilawal Bhatti (Muridke), Haseebullah (Pishin), Iftikhar Ahmed (Peshawar), Kamran Ghulam (Peshawar), Mohammad Faizan (Faisalabad), Mohammad Imran Jnr (Peshawar), Mohammad Sarwar Afridi (FATA), Muhammad Imran (Khanewal), Naseem Shah (Lahore), Nisar Ahmed (Lahore), Salman Ali Agha (Lahore), Shahnawaz Dahani (Larkana), Zahid Mehmood (Dadu), and Zain Abbas (Multan).
Mentor: Misbah-ul-Haq