Pakistan announce 16-member squad for Ireland, England Tests

The National Selection Committee headed by Inzamam ul Haq after consultation with Captain Sarfraz Ahmed and Head Coach Mickey Arthur on Sunday announced the 16-member Test squad for the series against Ireland and England scheduled to take place in May.

New Delhi: The National Selection Committee headed by Inzamam ul Haq after consultation with Captain Sarfraz Ahmed and Head Coach Mickey Arthur on Sunday announced the 16-member Test squad for the series against Ireland and England scheduled to take place in May.

A total of nine batsmen have been included in the squad to counter the difficult playing position in England.

Batsmen Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Usman Salahuddin and Saad Ali have received maiden Test call-ups. Shan Masood, the leading run-scorer in the recently concluded Regional One-Day Cup has been ruled out because of knee injury while left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz could not make into the squad.

The 16-member squad is expected to depart at the end of this month.

Pakistan will begin their campaign with a four-day warm-up match against county side Kent before taking on Ireland in a one-off test match on May 11: the first-ever played by the Irish.

The team will then return to England for a two-test series on May 24 and June 1, followed by two twenty20 internationals with Scotland on June 12 and 13 respectively.

Squad: Sarfraz Ahmed (capt &wk), Azhar Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Sami Aslam, Haris Sohail, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Saad Ali, Asad Shafiq, Usman Salahuddin, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Abbas, Hasan Ali,Rahat Ali, Faheem Ashraf