Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi was ruled out of the upcoming Asia Cup 2022 starting August 27 after the left-arm pacer sustained an injury to his right knee ligament. Afridi has been advised rest for 4-6 weeks which will also exclude him from the England series. However, Pakistan has now named a replacement for their pace sensation. Mohammad Hasnain will replace Shaheen Afridi in Pakistan’s 15-man squad for the Asia Cup 2022, which will be played in a T20 format in this year’s edition. (Mohammed Amir’s cheeky tweet after the news of Shaheen Afridi’s injury went viral – see here)
22-year-old fast bowler Mohammad Hasnain has played 18 T20 matches for Pakistan and has 17 wickets to his name so far. Shaheen Afridi was a huge asset to Pakistan’s bowling attack but the Babar Azam-led side will miss his service for a while now. Pakistan will take on India in their first match of the Asia Cup 2022 on August 28. It will be an intense contest between the two sides as usual but India will be eager to avenge the 2021 World Cup loss.
Afridi was impressive in Pakistan’s famous 10-wicket win over India in last year’s T20 World Cup led by Babar Azam The team crushed India’s World Cup campaign. The left-arm pacer dismissed Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in the same match. (Virat Kohli takes Anushka Sharma for a scooty ride in Mumbai, see PICS here)
JUST IN: Mohammad Hasnain will replace Shaheen Afridi in the Asia Cup squad.
Description – ICC (@ICC) 22 August 2022
Hasnain to replace Shaheen in Asia Cup
read details here https://t.co/1BSEfF6KMl
— PCB Media (@TheRealPCBMedia) 22 August 2022
Talking about Pakistan’s recent ODI series against Netherlands, skipper Babar Azam scored 91 runs to put his side on the line with a 91-run win against Netherlands in the third and final ODI at Hejlarweg, Rotterdam. The Men in Green defeated the hosts 3-0 in the ODI series. Babar had full support of Naseem Shah taking five wickets. The same team is likely to face India on August 28 as both the rivals begin their Asia Cup 2022 campaigns face-to-face.
Pakistan Squad: Babar Azam (Captain), Shadab Khan (Vice-Captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jr., Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir. (updated)