Pakistan recalls Babar and Shah for cricket T20s against South Africa

Pakistan has recalled Babar Azam and fast bowler Naseem Shah to the Twenty20 squad after nearly a year for the next week’s home series against South Africa and a subsequent tri-series involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

Babar, the world’s second leading scorer in T20 internationals, is back in the squad for the first time since December.

Babar’s strike rate of 129.22 has been more in focus than his 4,223 runs in 128 T20Is that put him second to India’s Rohit Sharma, who retired from T20 cricket after scoring 4,231 runs in 159 matches.

Pakistan had mixed results in T20s in Babar’s absence. It won the tri-series in the United Arab Emirates before the Asia Cup, where it lost three times to archrival India.

Shah, who has 25 wickets in 30 T20s, hasn’t played since his 0-44 against Australia at Sydney in November last year. But he has been drafted into the squad in place of Haris Rauf, who was included among the reserves along with Fakhar Zaman and Sufiyan Muqeem.

Wicketkeeper Mohammad Haris was also dropped after selectors ran out of patience with his performances since he scored a century against Bangladesh in June. Haris has only posted one half-century — against Oman — in his last 17 innings, a sequence that featured 11 single-digit scores.

With next year’s T20 World Cup in mind, the selectors opted for wicketkeeper-batter Usman Khan, who scored 239 runs in 19 T20s with an average of 14.93 before he got dropped in March.

Power-hitter Abdul Samad and fast bowler Salman Mirza are the other players recalled into the squad. Mystery spinner Usman Tariq, who performed well in the recent Caribbean Premier League, was also included.

The selectors also retained Mohammad Rizwan in the ODI team after he was fired from the captaincy and replaced by Shaheen Shah Afridi. Pakistan is scheduled to play two ODI series at home next month against South Africa and Sri Lanka.

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T20 squad: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim, Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan, Usman Tariq

ODI squad: Shahen Shah Afridi (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Faisal Akram, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha