Without a flicker of doubt, Pakistan cricket is going through its worst right now. Fresh off a red-ball series sweep against Bangladesh on home turf, the team knows that it has a lot to fix. But this mending has been under process since their dismal outings during the T20 World Cup, as a part of, what the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chief famously calls, a major surgery. One of the first big steps taken for the surgery in question was the introduction of a domestic tournament, the Champions Cup. PCB has been dropping details of the mentioned tournament occasionally, and the recent update has brought the squads and captains of the five teams that will participate in the 50-over competition.
Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Haris, and Saud Shakeel will captain Panthers, Lions, Wolves, Stallions, and Dolphins respectively. A total of 150 of Pakistan’s top players will be part of these five teams including the centrally contracted cricketers. A PCB release mentioned that this pool of 150 players was picked considering the performances of players in the last three years.
“Out of the 150 players, 125 were leading performers from the past three domestic seasons. The remaining 25 players were wildcards, selected based on their experience and performances for Pakistan, Pakistan Shaheens and Pakistan Under-19 teams over the last three years,”
The tourney will start on the 12th of September, with three playoff games to be played on the 24th, 25th, and 27th of September followed by the final on the 29th of September.
All centrally contracted players will showcase their skills in the One-day Cup except Imad Wasim, who is unavailable, Mohammad Nawaz, who has opted out due to personal reasons, Arshad Iqbal, Mohammad Wasim Jr., Hasan Ali, and Ihsanullah, all of whom are currently undergoing rehabilitation. Besides these, a few other players including Ahsan Ali, Athar Mahmood, Rizwan Hussain, and Zeeshan Zamir are rehabilitating at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) as well and will miss the tournament.
Provisional Squads (will be reduced to 15 players per team on the 10th of September)
Dolphins:
Mentor: Sarfaraz Ahmed
Saud Shakeel (c), Aftab Ibrahim, Asif Ali, Awais Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Kashif Ali, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Muhammad Akhlaq, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori, Muhammad Riazullah, Noman Ali, Qasim Akram, Sameen Gul, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Sahibzada Farhan, Sufiyan Moqim, Umar Amin, Usman Qadir
Lions:
Mentor: Waqar Younis
Shaheen Shah Afridi (c), Abdullah Shafique, Aamir Jamal, Aamer Yamin, Faisal Akram, Hassan Nawaz, Hunain Shah, Imam-ul-Haq, Imran Butt, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Asghar, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Mohammad Taha, Omair Bin Yousuf, Rohail Nazir, Shahab Khan, Sharoon Siraj, Sirajuddin, Waqar Hussain
Panthers:
Mentor: Saqlain Mushtaq
Shadab Khan (c), Abdul Wahid Bangalzai, Ahmed Bashir, Ali Asfand, Ali Raza, Amad Butt, Arafat Minhas, Azan Awais, Haider Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Umar, Mohammad Zeeshan, Mubasir Khan, Rehan Afridi, Rizwan Mehmood, Saim Ayub, Umar Siddiq, Usama Mir, Usman Khan, Usman Salahuddin
Stallions:
Mentor: Shoaib Malik
Mohammad Haris (c), Abrar Ahmed, Adil Amin, Azam Khan, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Hussain Talat, Jahandad Khan, Junaid Ali, Maaz Ahmad Sadaqat, Mehran Mumtaz, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Amir Khan, Saad Khan, Shamyl Hussain, Shan Masood, Tayyab Tahir, Ubaid Shah, Yasir Khan, Zaman Khan
Wolves:
Mentor: Misbah ul Haq
Mohammad Rizwan (c), Fakhar Zaman, Abdul Samad, Akif Javed, Ali Usman, Bilawal Bhatti, Haseebullah, Iftikhar Ahmed, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Faizan, Mohammad Imran Jnr, Mohammad Sarwar Afridi, Muhammad Imran, Naseem Shah, Nisar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Shahnawaz Dahani, Zahid Mehmood, Zain Abbas.
