The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has delayed the announcement of its World Cup squad until late May due to fitness and performance issues with some players. A PCB source said Pakistan would announce its World T20 Cup squad either on May 23 or May 24 - which i s the deadline set by the ICC for participating teams to make changes to their squads without seeking permission from the WC Technical Committee.
The management and selectors are concerned over injuries to Muhammad Rizwan, Azam Khan, Irfan Khan Niazi and Haris Rauf.
India, Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand have all announced their WC squads until now.
“It (delay) doesn’t matter because all these teams can change their entire squad by 24th May after that changes can only be allowed on fitness or injury basis with approval of the technical committee,” he said. “That is why the PCB and selectors have decided to hold off until after the first match in England.” The source also added that the selectors also wanted to give more time to Babar Azam and other players to settle down and recapture the old bonding in the dressing room before the WC squad is announced. “For the time being we have sent a provisional squad to the ICC for public relations and promotion purposes,” the source said.
