LAHORE: It definitely required some human effort on his part but perhaps lady luck also had her role in setting the stage for bringing back Shoaib Malik to the national duty at a global event.

Out of the blue, the veteran middle-order batter got another chance to don national colours at the forthcoming T20 World Cup on Saturday when injured batter Sohaib Maqsood gave way to the former Pakistan skipper, according to an announcement made by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The World Cup featuring teams from 16 nations is all set to begin in Oman on Oct 17 while its main round will commence in the UAE from Oct 23.

“Sohaib Maqsood has been ruled out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 due to a lower back injury and has been replaced by Shoaib Malik. Sohaib had undergone MRI scans for the lower back on Thursday after picking up the injury during the Oct 6 match against Northern and consequently missed [the] Oct 7 match against Central Punjab,” read a PCB statement on Saturday.

Speaking on the development, chief selector Mohammad Wasim said: “Sohaib is devastated to miss out on the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as he had worked hard for this event and was in sparkling form. We feel for him but injuries are part and parcel of the sport. I am sure after undergoing rehabilitation, he’ll fully recover to be available for future assignments.

“In his place and following discussions with the team management, we have decided to include Shoaib Malik in the side. I am sure Shoaib’s experience will be handy for the entire squad,” the chief selector added.

The 39-year-old Malik, for his string of failures with the bat in international contests was not selected to the initial squad announced for the now-cancelled home series against New Zealand and England and for the World Cup.

However in the ongoing National T20 Cup, Malik emerged among the top ten run-getters aggregating 225 averaging a healthy 75.00 with an impressive strike-rate of 149.00, forcing chief selector Mohammad Wasim to reconsider the experienced pro for national selection.

Right-handed Malik, last appeared for Pakistan in a T20 more than a year ago holds a vast experience of top-level 20-overs-a-side cricket. After making his T20 International debut way back in August 2006 against England at Bristol, Malik has so far featured in 116 games of the shortest format for Pakistan in which the Sialkot-born player scored 2,335 runs (average 31.13) with the help of eight half-centuries at an overall strike-rate of 124.20.

Malik captained Pakistan at the inaugural T20 World Cup 2007 staged in South Africa where Pakistan lost the nail-biting final to arch-rivals India. He was also a member of Pakistan’s winning team at the 2009 T20 World Cup held in England. After missing the West Indies event in 2010, he featured in the 2012, 2014 and 2016 editions of the T20 World Cup.

These stats might have forced the chief selector to give him another chance despite the fact that dashing opener Sharjeel Khan (339, average 37.66, strike-rate 149.33) and third highest run-scorer Sahibzada Farhan (315, eight matches, average 45.00, strike-rate 138) also deserve some rethink by the authorities who gave another chance to Haider Ali. Farhan has played three T20 Inter­nationals.

While the utility of his occasional off-spin disappeared long ago, Malik’s T20 International show with the bat of late has been quite ordinary. In his last 10 innings since October 2018 he has only managed to accumulate 214 runs at a below-par average of 23.77. His last T20I half-century came against Bangladesh at Lahore in 2020 which he produced after almost 18 months, after making 53 against Scotland in Edinburgh in June 2018.

On Friday, the PCB made three changes to the T20 World Cup squad bringing in former captain and wicket-keeper/batter Sarfaraz Ahmad, Haider and opener Fakhar Zaman while excluding batter Khushdil Shah (kept as a reserve player), pacer Mohammad Hasnain and Azam.

With the inclusion of Sarfaraz and now that of Malik, the number of senior players in the squad have increased as Mohammad Hafeez, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali are already there.

Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad, which leaves for Dubai on Oct 15, will play warm-ups against West Indies and South Africa on Oct 18 and 20, respectively before taking on India in a Group-2 fixture on Oct 24 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

All the tickets for this much-awaited match have already been sold out.

Meanwhile, the PCB has sought permission for camp training for the World Cup squad while also passing six-day quarantine period before their departure for Dubai on Oct 15. All the players and support staff’s Covid-19 test came negative and the squad will have a training session at the National High Performance Centre on Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, the national squad will also play matches at the LCCA Ground.

Revised squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shoaib Malik.

Travelling reserves: Khushdil Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2021