Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim has replaced Mohammad Nawaz in Pakistan’s 15-strong ODI squad for their three-match series against New Zealand, while Mohammad Amir has been dropped, and Mohammad Hafeez recalled.
It is over a year since Wasim played the last of his 30 ODIs, in which he scored 430 runs with three half-centuries and took 28 wickets, maintaining an economy of 4.48, but he has impressed for Pakistan in T20Is recently, gaining two Player of the Match awards in succession in the first two games of their 3-0 series win over Australia.
The Swansea-born all-rounder is also a more accomplished batsman than Nawaz, averaging 36 in ODIs compared to Nawaz’s 22, and 41 in first-class cricket to Nawaz’s 33. Nawaz played three games in the recent Asia Cup, but after taking 3/57 in his first appearance against Afghanistan went wicketless against India and Bangladesh.
Mohammad Amir has also been dropped after going wicketless in his last five ODIs. This follows him being left out of Pakistan’s recent Test and T20I squads.
Mohammad Hafeez, who scored a century on his Test return, has been recalled to the squad. His last ODI also came against New Zealand, back in January.
The other change from that Asia Cup squad is that Shan Masood has been dropped. He is yet to play a white-ball game for Pakistan, though he did score two hundreds for Pakistan A against New Zealand A in a first-class game which concluded on the day the squad was announced.
The series begins on Wednesday 7 November.
Squad
Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Asif Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Shadab Khan, Shoaib Malik, Haris Sohail, Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Usman Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Junaid Khan, Fakhar Zaman
