LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board has named a 15-member under-16 squad for the series against Australia which will be played in the UAE from Jan 9 to 18.

Surprisingly, several changes have been made in the list of 20 shortlisted players which was announced earlier.

Aarish Ali Khan, 16, who was not included in the earlier list despite taking 45 wickets in the One-day tournament, has now been named captain of the team.

Rohail Nazir, who was named skipper in the previous list, has now been given the responsibility of Aarish’s deputy in place of M. Taha.

The squad has some over 16 players as well. They are Taha and all-rounder Ziad Khan. Ziad has hit 394 runs besides taking 10 wickets while Taha has scored 514 runs.

Another prominent induction is Saqib Jamil, who despite scoring 409 runs, was not selected earlier.

It is not clear who in fact has selected this squad as there is no chief selector working at the moment after the withdrawal of Basit Ali.

There will be three one-day matches and as many T20 matches which will be played at the ICC Academy in Dubai.

Squad:

Aarish Ali Khan (captain, from Karachi), M. Taha (Karachi), Ziad Khan (Rawalpindi), Saqib Jamil (Peshawar), Abdul Hadi (Bahawalpur), Rohail Nazir (vice-captain, Islamabad), M. Talha Mehmood (Karachi), Hasant Abbas (Lahore), Mashal Khan (Abbottabad), Zain Bin Farooq (Lahore), Mehran Mumtaz (Rawalpindi), Moeen Parvaiz (AJK), M. Imran (Peshawar), Abdullah Manzoor (Faisalabad), Naseem Shah (Lahore).

Standbys: Hasnain Hussain (Fata), Danish Sarhadi (Abbottabad), Junaid Khan (Abbottabad), Usman Rahim (Karachi), M. Junaid (Quetta).

Officials:

Taimoor Khan (manager-cum-head coach), Masroor Ahmed (assistant coach), Imranullah (trainer), Iftikhar (physio).

Schedule of matches:

First ODI: Jan 9

Second ODI: Jan 11

Third ODI: Jan 13

First T20: Jan 15

Second T20: Jan 16

Third T20: Jan 18

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2017