LAHORE: Drastic changes were made as the national selection committee headed by Inzamam-ul-Haq announced a 14-member Pakistan ‘A’ team on Wednesday for their unofficial one-day series against New Zealand ‘A’.

The changes come in the wake of Pakistan A’s 2-1 loss in the T20 series against the same opposition in the UAE and remarkably the biggest of them sees wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan being made captain with Umar Amin, the captain of the T20 team, dropped altogether due to unimpressive performances on the pitch.

Although Pakistan started the T20 series impressively, winning the first match by eight wickets, their performance nosedived as they lost the second and third matches by seven and five wickets respectively.

Only five players from the T20 squad were retained for the one-day series. They include Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmad, Agha Salman Ali, Aamir Yamin and Waqas Mahmood. Those dropped besides Umar are Hussain Talat, Asif Ali, Sahibzada Farhan, Umaid Asif, Raza Hasan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Hasan.

Abid Ali, Shan Masood, Mohammad Saad, Saud Shakeel, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Asif, Rahat Ali, Ahmad Jamal and Irfan Junior were all called up to the one-day squad.

The one-day matches will be played in Abu Dhabi with the first match on October 21, the second on October 24 and final game two days later.

Pakistan ‘A’: Abid Ali, Shan Masood, Mohammad Saeed, Iftikhar Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Agha Salman, Amir Yamin, Mohamamd Rizwan (captain, wicket-keeper), Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Asghar, Rahat Ali, Waqas Maqsood, Mohammad Irfan Junior and Ahmed Jamal.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2018