KARACHI: Pakistan’s former captain Azhar Ali will return to One-day cricket after a gap of three years as Worcestershire County Cricket Club has announced the signing of the star batter for the upcoming Royal Lonon Cup 2022. 

The club confirmed on Twitter that the right-handed batter had agreed to feature for the Worcestershire Rapids in the upcoming first-class One-day cup scheduled this summer.

“Azhar has now agreed to also be part of their squad for the 50-over competition throughout August in a huge boost to the Rapids’ hopes of glory,” Worcestershire CCC said in a statement.

Azhar had also represented Worcestershire for the red-ball cricket in this year’s county championship.

Speaking on the occasion Pakistani star expressed his joy over joining the club’s squad for the upcoming task and hoped to lead the team into the knockout stages of the tournament.

”I’ve really enjoyed the first two and a half months with Worcestershire,(…) I also love List A cricket and am delighted to be able to play the entire Royal London Cup campaign,” said Azhar.

“I hope I can play my part in helping them to do even better and qualify for the knockout stages, and then, who knows what can happen?” he added.

“There are some fine players in our squad, and we have the capabilities to do well,” he concluded.

The 37-year-old has a formidable List A record as he has scored 6278 runs at an average of 47.20 with 17 hundreds and 36 half-centuries.

Azhar, last played 50-over cricket back in 2019 when he was representing the Somerset County Cricket Club.

The seasoned Pakistan batter has represented Pakistan in 53 ODIs and accumulated 1845 runs at an average of 36.2.

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