LAHORE: Making five changes in the squad that participated in the Under-19 Asia Cup last month in Malaysia, the Junior Selection Committee of PCB headed by former opener Basit Ali, announced a 15-member Pakistan team for the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup 2018 which will be played in New Zealand from Jan 13.

The Pakistan junior team will be playing an ODI series against Australia and New Zealand prior to the start of the mega event.

Though Pakistan played the final of the Asia Cup last month, its performance was not outstanding by any count as it tasted defeat twice at the hands of Afghanistan — first in the group match and then in the final by a big margin of 186 runs.

Pakistan barely made the final by earning a two-run win against Bangladesh in the semifinal on D/L method. Earlier, they only managed to defeat Sri Lanka by three wickets and UAE by 226 runs.

The selectors on Tuesday did remove some of the under performing players of the Asia Cup but several ordinary performers are still part of the World Cup squad.

The players who have been axed from the squad on Tuesday are Umair Yousuf, Abdullah Shafiq, Hammad Khan, Asghar Qureshi and Haider Ali, though the last named was not tested in a single match of the Asia Cup.

Umair, who played only two matches scoring just 10 runs and Abdullah Shafiq who could score only 81 from five matches have been dropped. Hammad Khan who played just two matches to score 11 runs and took one wicket have also failed to find a place in the team while Zaid Alam, who was injured and could not play any match of the Asia Cup, has been retained.

Young Imran Shah, Emmad Alam, Ali Zaryab and Arshad Iqbal are the new entrants in the squad.

Quite surprisingly, Hassan Khan has been retained as skipper, despite having no impressive performance to his credit. He took seven wickets for 141 runs in the Asia Cup and scored just 39 runs from five matches.

Other under achievers who have retained their places are wicket-keeper Rohail Nazir (98 runs from five matches), M Mohsin (40 runs from four matches), off-spinner Hammad Khan (one wicket), Saad Khan (69 runs from five matches) and Muhammad Ali who did not play any match in the Asia Cup.

Those who have managed to retain their places on merit include right-arm fast bowler Musa Khan, who remained top wicket-taker for Pakistan with nine wickets at the average of 13.22 in Asia Cup, left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Afridi (seven wickets, averages 23.14), right-arm fast Munir Riaz (eight wickets, averages 17.13), and batsman Muhammad Taha who remained top scorer with 250 runs at the averages 50.00.

Meanwhile, a PCB press release stated: “The Under-19 team will feature in a three-match ODI series against Australia on Dec 27, 29 and 31, 2017 and later will travel to New Zealand to play two ODI matches on Jan 3 and Jan 5, 2018, respectively. Later, the team will feature in the ICC U-19 World Cup commencing from January 13, 2018 in New Zealand. The training camp for the U-19 team will be setup at the National Cricket Academy, Lahore from Dec 7-20, and the team will depart for Australia on Dec 21.

Under-19 Squad:

Mohsin Khan, Imran Shah, Zaid Alam, Rohail Nazir (wicketkeeper vice captain), Muhammad Taha, Emmad Alam, Ali Zaryab, Saad Khan, Hassan Khan (Captain), Musa Khan, Shaheen Shah, Munir Riaz, Arshad Iqbal, Muhammad Ali, Suleman Shafqat.

Reserve Players: Muhammad Junaid, Haider Ali, Muhammad Ilyas, Azam Khan, Mukhtair Ahmad (wicketkeeper).

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2017