A number of top teams have announced their squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, which begins next month in the United States and West Indies.
However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is yet to name their squad for the World Cup.
According to The News, the reason behind delay in announcement of World Cup squad is due to concerns over fitness of some of the players.
“Though majority of unfit players have been training for the past few days you cannot guarantee their match fitness until they play at international level,” one of the selectors said.
“We have seven T20 international matches ahead of the World Cup. The majority of these matches [against Ireland and England] will be used to ascertain the fitness of some key players. At the same time, it is also important to protect the fitness of those already in the business. So, we have decided to delay naming the final World Cup squad which will now be done in the third week of May.”
Haris Rauf, Mohammad Rizwan, Azam Khan and Irfan Khan Niazi all have been training for the past few days and passed their fitness tests. Most probably they will be there in the squad to be announced today for the back-to-back series against Ireland and England this month.
When asked about other top teams’ announcements, the selector said that the majority of these countries don’t have any international commitments ahead of the World Cup T20.
“Pakistan is the only country which has seven matches to play before the World Cup. So, we have time to see whether some of the key players are match fit,” he added.
The Pakistan squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 is set to be announced after the conclusion of the first T20I against England, which will take place on May 22.
The initial deadline for squad submission for T20 World Cup was May 1 but the teams can make changes till 25th of the same month. After that, any changes will require approval from the event’s technical committee.
