KARACHI: The player draft for the first phase of the National T20 Cup was held on Friday on the pattern of the Pakistan Super League and Pakistan Cup with notable surprises in all eight regional teams announced.

The first phase of the tournament will be staged at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi from Aug 25 to Sept 2, while the second leg is scheduled to be organised at the Multan Cricket Stadium, tentatively from Sept 5.

Likely members of the Pakistan limited-overs teams, currently touring England, will only be available for the Multan tournament for which a second draft will be held.

Both national side’s one-day skipper Azhar Ali and T20 captain Sarfraz Ahmed along with other members of their respective squads will return home after Pakistan’s one-off Twenty20 International against England at Old Trafford on Sept 7.

The salient feature of the draft ceremony held at the Royal Palm Golf Club in Lahore on Friday was that representatives of all eight outfits had initially to pick four players from their respective region before the draft for the remaining 11 cricketers in each of the squad started.

Event to be staged in Rawalpindi, Multan in two stages

Among big names of Pakistan cricket, Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq was bought by Karachi Whites, who will be skippered by Akbar-ur-Rehman.

Akbar, a surprise absentee along with Asif Zakir from the list of players named on Friday by the national selection committee for the High Performance Camp, leads a virtual Karachi side that includes Misbah as the solitary outsider.

Former Pakistan T20 captain Shahid Afridi, who has been out-of-form for a long time, was picked by the Umar Gul-led Islamabad franchise, while spinner Arsal Sheikh, son of influential PCB official Shakil Shaikh, is a controversial selection in the Lahore Whites squad that will be captained by discarded Pakistan wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal.

Arsal, it may be mentioned, was also selected in the Balochistan franchise for the Pakistan Cup one-day competition staged in Faisalabad a couple of months ago and made his List A debut against Islamabad.

Ex-Pakistan skipper Salman Butt is also set for his T20 comeback after a 10-year hiatus when he turns out for his native Lahore Whites.

Among other franchises, Ahmed Shehzad will lead Lahore Blues, Sohail Tanvir (Rawalpindi), Riffatullah Mohmand (Peshawar), Khalid Latif (Karachi Blues) while Fawad Khan has been named as Fata skipper.

Squads for the Rawalpindi tournament:

FATA: Fawad Khan (captain), Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Irfan, Asif Ali, Bilal Asif, Khushdil Shah, Irfanullah Shah, Mohammad Usman, Aamir Yamin, Yasir Hameed, Adnan Raees, Sameen Gul, Umar Siddique, Asif Afridi, Sohrab Khan.

ISLAMABAD: Umar Gul (captain), Imad Wasim, Naeem Anjum, Sarmad Bhatti, Sami Aslam, Imam-ul-Haq, Raheel Majeed, Shahid Afridi, Abdur Rehman, Abid Ali, Ali Sarfraz, Junaid Khan, Adil Amin, Zohaib Khan, Shehzad Azam Rana.

KARACHI BLUES: Khalid Latif (captain), Khurram Manzoor, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Asghar, Shahzaib Hasan, Saifullah Khan Bangash, Ali Khan, Rumman Raees Khan, Usama Mir, Saeed Ajmal, Zohaib Shera, Bilawal Bhatti, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Waqas, Fazal Subhan.

KARACHI WHITES: Akbar-ur-Rehman (captain), Tariq Haroon, Mir Hamza, Azam Hussain, Misbah-ul-Haq, Tabish Khan, Danish Aziz, Asif Zakir, Ahsan Ali, Saud Shakeel, Faraz Ahmed Khan, Sohail Khan, Rameez Raja Jr, Mohammad Hasan, Zain Abbas.

LAHORE BLUES: Ahmed Shehzad (captain), Saad Nasim, Nasir Jamshed, Salman Ali Agha, Hasan Ali, Nauman Anwar, Farhan Khan, Fahim Ashraf, Naved Yasin, Mohammad Akhlaq, Asif Raza, Zafar Gohar, Rahat Ali, Ahmed Bashir, Raza Ali Dar.

LAHORE WHITES: Kamran Akmal (captain), Umar Akmal, Salman Butt, Hussain Talat, Zia-ul-Haq, Imran Khan, Ayaz Tasawwar, Kashif Bhatti, Ehsan Adil, Qaiser Ashraf, Amad Butt, Shahid Yousuf, Kamran Ghulam, Arsal Shaikh, Imran Butt.

PESHAWAR: Riffatullah Mohmand (captain), Musadiq Ahmed, Imran Khan Jr, Zohaib Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Waqas Maqsood, Ghulam Mudassar, Anwar Ali, Imran Khalid, Gohar Ali, Shah Faisal, Sohaib Maqsood, Israrullah, Iftikhar Ahmed, Akbar Badshah.

RAWALPINDI: Sohail Tanvir (captain), Yasir Arafat, Umar Amin, Mohammad Nawaz, Asif Ali, Hammad Azam, Shadab Khan, Zulfiqar Babar, Aizaz Cheema, Zahid Mansoor, Jamal Anwar, Awais Zia, Mukhtar Ahmed, Zeeshan Malik, Naved Malik.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016