LAHORE, Nov 26: Pakistan squad late on Sunday left for Chinese Taipei to participate in the 26th Asian Baseball Championship being held from Nov 28 to Dec 2.

According to Syed Khawar Shah, Pakistan Federation Baseball secretary general who accompanied the squad as the manager, Pakistan will face China in the opening match of the six-nation championship on Wednesday.

Khawar admitted that the tournament was tough, noting all the top six ranked teams of the Asian region are featuring in it.

“However, our team have prepared well under the supervision of Korean coach Hwang Dong Hoon, who has been training the boys in Lahore for the last two months,” he added.

The manager noted that except for the Philippines all the other participating teams — Japan, Korea, China, and Chinese Taipei — were above Pakistan in the Asian rankings. “Pakistan’s fifth rank in Asia has enabled it to compete in such a high-profile continental tournament.”

Pakistan will lock horns with Japan, Asia’s top team and having won the title 16 times, on Nov 29. Pakistan will then play Korea (Nov 30), followed by matches against hosts Chinese Taipei (Dec 1) and the Philippines (Dec 2).

Squad:

Basit Murtaza (captain), Ahsan Baig, Syed Dur I. Hussain, Mohammad Touseef, Mohammad Usman, Zubair Nawaz, Sumair Zawar, Zaheer Bashir, Umair Imdad Bhatti, Usman Azam, Tariq Nadeem, Mohammad Asif Mushtaq, Shaharyar Wasim, Saleem Haider, Usman Shaukat.

Officials:

Syed Khawar Shah (manager), Khawaja Saad (assistant manager), Hwang Dong Hoon (head coach), Musaddaq Hanif (coach), Abdul Wadood Khan (assistant coach).