KARACHI: Portugal-based Easah Suliman and England-based Otis Khan were on Tuesday named among 28 players who will attend the Pakistan national team camp for the upcoming four-Nations Cup in Mauritius and the SAFF Championship in India.
Alongside central defender Easah and attacker Otis, seven other foreign-based players were named for the camp including strikers Hassan Bashir and Abdul Samad, midfielders Harun Hamid, Rahis Nabi and Adnan Yaqoob, defender Abdullah Iqbal and goalkeeper Yousuf Butt.The training camp gets underway from Wednesday with the team due to travel to Mauritius for the four-Nations Cup where they face the hosts in the opener on June 11 before matches against Kenya and Djibouti.
At the SAFF Championship in Bangalore, Pakistan face India in their opening game on June 21 before facing Kuwait and Nepal in their other Group ‘A’ matches.
If they make the final squad, Easah and Otis will make their debuts for Pakistan in Mauritius.
The 25-year-old Easah, a product of the Aston Villa academy, was a former England under-20 international and currently plays in the Portuguese second-tier while Otis, 27, is on the books of Grimsby Town in England’s fourth tier.
All the other foreign-based players have featured for Pakistan in the past, including the 36-year-old Hassan, who is the country’s second-highest goalscorer with nine.
Harun and Samad made their Pakistan debuts in the 1-0 friendly loss to the Maldives in March while Rahis returns to the side for the first time since featuring in the first round of qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup against Cambodia in 2019.
Pakistan are also due to feature in the first round of qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which are scheduled for October.
Training camp probables:
Goalkeepers: Saqib Hanif, Salman-ul-Haq, Abdul Basit, Yousuf Ijaz Butt; Defenders: Mohammad Umar Hayat, Ali Khan Niazi, Mohammad Sufyan, Mohammad Umer Saeed, Mamoon Moosa Khan, Syed Abdullah Shah, Haseeb Ahmed Khan, Sardar Wali, Sohail, Easah Suliman, Abdullah Iqbal; Midfielders: Alamgir Ali Khan Ghazi, Ali Uzair Mahmood, Moin Ahmed, Shayak Dost, Mohammad Waleed Khan, Rahis Nabi, Harun Arrashid Faheem Hamid, Umair Ali, Mohammad Adnan Yaqoob; Forwards: Abdul Samad Shahzad, Otis Jan Mohammad Khan, Hassan Naweed Bashir, Mohammad Waheed.
Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2023
