MELBOURNE: Wicketkeeper batter Mohammad Rizwan replaced his counterpart Sarfaraz Ahmed in Pakistan’s 12-member squad for the second Test against Australia.
Taking to Twitter, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) unveiled the 12-member squad which will form their Playing XI for the must-win Boxing Day Test.
Wicketkeeper batter Sarfaraz Ahmed, who offered a forgetful performance in the Perth Test, was left out of the squad with Mohammad Rizwan coming in as his replacement.
Notably, Sarfaraz only managed to score seven runs in the first Test and fell victim to left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc in each of the innings.
The 36-year-old also missed a number of chances behind the stumps which drew massive criticism from the fans.
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Sarfaraz Ahmed also failed to prove his batting prowess in the two-day practice match against Victoria XI where he managed the scores of 35 and 10.
Mohammad Rizwan, however, strengthened his selection case by scoring a half-century in the practice match.
Besides this, fast-bowling all-rounder Faheem Ashraf also failed to retain his spot in Pakistan’s Playing XI, whereas, pacers Mir Hamza and Hasan Ali were named in the 12-member squad.
Pakistan squad for second Test
Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Afridi (vc), Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza, Aamir Jamal, Sajid Khan.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan are facing an injury dilemma amid their tough tour to Australia as two of their three injured bowlers – Noman Ali and Khurram Shahzad – have been ruled out of the series.
Their emerging mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed, however, is on the road to recovery but the PCB, on Saturday, shared that the 25-year-old was not ready for selection for the second Test.
READ: Mitchell Starc surprised over the lack of pace by Pakistan bowlers