KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan captain Babar Azam is not sure whether newly appointed deputy Shan Masood will walk into the playing XI for the one-day international series against New Zealand starting Monday.
“We can’t talk about any individual at the moment, whether he’s vice-captain or X, Y, Z,” Babar said on Sunday. “We will try to field our best playing XI and try to win the series.”
The 33-year-old left-handed batter Masood was made vice-captain in place of Mohammad Rizwan, the only wicketkeeper in the 16-man squad for the three ODIs.
Masood hasn’t played an ODI since 2019 when all five of his matches were against Australia in the United Arab Emirates. He scored 111 runs at an average of 22.20.
The interim selection committee headed by Shahid Afridi also recalled Haris Sohail, another left-handed batter. He has 1,685 runs in 42 ODIs, but hasn’t featured since October 2020 against Zimbabwe.
Two uncapped middle-order batsmen, Tayyab Tahir and Kamran Ghulam, were picked after scoring prolifically on the domestic circuit.