KARACHI: Punjab will take on Balochistan in the opening fixture of the Pakistan Cup one-day tournament which starts at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad on Tuesday.

According to the schedule released by the Pakistan Cricket Board, altogether 11 day-night matches will be staged, starting at 3:00pm and ending around 10.45pm.

The salient feature of this competition, which was previously known as Pentangular Cup, that all teams have been selected through a process of player draft, as it was done for the Pakistan Super League earlier this year.

But one significant change that has already taken place is that the originally-announced Federal side has been renamed as Islamabad.

Punjab, who are being led by former Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik, have in their ranks Salman Butt alongside Asad Shafiq, Zulfiqar Babar and Shan Masood.

Pakistan current one-day team leader Azhar Ali leads a strong Balochistan side that also features the likes of Umar Akmal, Bilawal Bhatti, Babar Azam, Umar Gul and Junaid Khan.

Sarfraz Ahmed, the new Pakistan T20 skipper, is the Sindh captain. His squad includes Mohammad Amir, Sohaib Maqsood, Fawad Alam, Rumman Raees Khan and Imad Wasim.

Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq will skipper the Islamabad squad that has Kamran Akmal, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Sami along with Under-19 players Shadab Khan and the controversial Arsal Shaikh.

Ex-Pakistan captain and record-breaking batsman Younis Khan has been nominated to skipper the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa team which has the services of Ahmed Shehzad, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Asghar and Zohaib Khan.

Schedule:

April 19: Punjab vs Balochistan.

April 20: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vs Islamabad.

April 21: Sindh vs Balochistan.

April 22: Punjab vs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

April 23: Sindh vs Islamabad.

April 24: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vs Balochistan.

April 25: Punjab vs Islamabad.

April 27: Sindh vs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

April 28: Balochistan vs Islamabad.

April 29: Punjab vs Sindh.

May 1: Final.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2016