Overview:
In a must-win game against Namibia, the team management decided to remove the left-arm pacer from the Playing XI.
Pakistan have dropped Shaheen Shah Afridi from their playing XI against Namibia following a 61-run defeat to India in the ICC T20 World Cup 2026. The pacer bowled just 2 overs and conceded 31 runs as the Men in Green went down once again. Shaheen has been ordinary in the global tournament and has lost his pace.
He has lost his match-winning abilities, with the batters targeting him in the powerplay and death overs. In a must-win game against Namibia, the team management decided to remove the left-arm pacer.
“We are batting first as we have played two games here and know about the conditions. We didn’t play well against India, and the batters need to make contributions. We have made two changes, with Salman Mirza and Khawaja Nafay replacing Shaheen Afridi and Abrar Ahmed,” Salman Ali Agha said.
Pakistan were almost stunned by the Netherlands in the campaign opener, but the one-time champions managed to cross the finishing line. In their next game, Salman Ali Agha’s team showed their class against the USA, who failed to get going in front of the sub-continent nation. However, the winning momentum was halted by the Men in Blue, who dominated the arch-rivals across departments.
Playing XIs
Pakistan: 1 Sahibzada Farhan (wk), 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Salman Agha (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Shadab Khan/Fakhar Zaman, 6 Usman Khan (wk), 7 Khawaja Nafay, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Salman Mirza, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Usman Tariq
Namibia: 1 Jan Frylinck, 2 Louren Steenkamp, 3 Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, 4 Gerhard Erasmus (capt), 5 Alexander Busing-Volschenk, 6 JJ Smit, 7 Zane Green (wk), 8 Ruben Trumpelmann, 9 Willem Myburgh, 10 Bernard Scholtz, 11 Jack Brassell