The Pakistani Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the squads and schedule for the National T20 Tournament, which is set to start from 20th August 2022 at the Pindi Cricket Stadium and move to Multan Cricket Stadium, where the final will be played on 19th September 2022.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will defend their National T20 title under the leadership of Khalid Usman as the all-rounder has been announced the captain of the winners of the 2020 and 2021 editions.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have had an impressive run in the last two editions of the tournament, winning 15 off 24 matches, and will be eager to continue their form when they open their campaign on 31 August, the second day of the tournament, against Central Punjab.
Another tournament win will further stamp Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a T20 powerhouse, embellish their trophy cabinet with the prestigious silverware and another PKR5million in their bank account.
All-rounder Faheem Ashraf takes the reins of Central Punjab, the runners up of the previous edition, who will lock horns with Yasir Shah-captained Balochistan in the second match of the tournament on the National T20 opening day (30 August).
The tournament will begin with what promises to be a thriller with Saud Shakeel’s Sindh taking on Hasan Ali’s Southern Punjab. Northern, the home side, will begin their campaign on 1 September and will be captained by top-order batter Umar Amin.
The squad for the National T20 tournament has been finalized by national men’s chief selector, Muhammad Wasim, in consultation with the six Cricket Associations. The selectors have ensured that the players on the fringes of the national side get the opportunities to continue to push their case for the national selection and this summer’s top performers in the City Cricket Association and Divisional tournaments climb another rung.
National T20 Tournament Squads
Here is the complete list for First XI squads:
Balochistan: Yasir Shah (c), Shan Masood (vc), Abdul Wahid Bangalzai, Akif Javed, Ali Waqas, Amad Butt, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Haseebullah (wk), Hussain Talat, Junaid Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Junaid and Sajjad Ali
Central Punjab: Faheem Ashraf (c), Abdullah Shafique (vc), Ahmed Shehzad, Ahmed Daniyal, Ali Asfand, Hunain Shah, Irfan Khan Niazi, Junaid Ali (wk), Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Faizan, Qasim Akram, Shoaib Malik, Tayyab Tahir, Usama Mir and Wahab Riaz
Northern: Umar Amin (c), Ali Imran (vc), Aamer Jamal, Hassan Nawaz, Mehran Mumtaz, Mubasir Khan, Mohammad Huraira, Nasir Nawaz, Rohail Nazir (wk), Salman Irshad, Shoaib Amir, Sohail Tanvir, Umer Khan, Usman Khan Shinwari and Zaman Khan
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Khalid Usman (c), Kamran Ghulam (vc), Adil Amin, Aamer Azmat, Arshad Iqbal, Asif Afridi, Ihsanullah, Imran Khan Snr, Israrullah, Maaz khan, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Sarwar Afridi, Mohammad Amir Khan and Sahibzada Farhan
Sindh: Saud Shakeel (c), Mir Hamza (vc), Abrar Ahmed, Anwar Ali, Asif Mahmood, Danish Aziz, Omair Bin Yousuf, Rumman Raees, Saad Khan, Saim Ayub, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Sharjeel Khan, Syed Faraz Ali, Zahid Mehmood and Zeeshan Zameer
Southern Punjab: Hasan Ali (c), Salman Ali Agha (vc), Ahmad Bashir, Ali Majid, Amir Yamin, Faisal Akram, Hassan Khan, Mohammad Imran Randhawa, Moinuddin, Mohammad Ilyas, Sameen Gul, Sharoon Siraj, Sohaib Maqsood, Zain Abbas and Zeeshan Ashraf (wk)
National T20 Tournament Schedule
The National T20 will be played in two legs with Pindi Cricket Stadium playing host to first 16 of the 33 matches from 30 August till 7 September. Multan Cricket Stadium will stage the second leg between 10 till 19 September.
The National T20 teams will move to Rawalpindi on Thursday (26 August) to commence their preparations of the tournament.
To ensure the players participating in the tournament get their due share of exposure and the fans get to enjoy the action-packed matches, the double-headers from 30 August till 11 September have been scheduled in a manner that they do not clash with the ACC Asia Cup T20.
The first match of the day will commence on 0930 and the second will begin at 1400. From 12 September, the first of the two matches will start at 1500, while the second will begin at 1930.
As the Pakistan Cricket Board continues to incentivise domestic performers, PKR0.4million will be shared equally between the tournament’s top performers (player of the tournament, best batter of the tournament, best bowler of the tournament and best wicketkeeper of the tournament).
The best performer of every match will get PKR25,000 and the player of the final will bag PKR35,000. The team ending second in the tournament will get PKR2.5million.
The head coaches of the first XI teams for the 2022-23 domestic season are: Mushtaq Ahmed (Balochistan), Abdul Razzaq (Central Punjab), Abdul Rehman (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Ijaz Ahmed Snr (Northern), Ghulam Ali (Sindh) and Shahid Anwar (Southern Punjab).
Read more: PCB Announces Schedule Of England Test Tour of Pakistan.
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