Pakistan cricket team have released the pace bowler Hasan Ali ahead of the start of the four-match T20 series against England. Hasan Ali was named in the squad as cover for the paceman Haris Rauf, who has been recovering from an injury. Now with Rauf regaining full fitness ahead of the first T20I at Headingley on Wednesday, May 22, Hasan has been released to go back to County cricket.
"The team management has decided to let Hasan Ali continue his commitments in county cricket. Initially, Hasan was selected as an injury cover for Haris Rauf," a PCB statement said. Rauf's return will give much-needed X-factor and much better look to the pace attack featuring Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah.
Pakistan have played as many as eight T20Is in the last month or so and even though they have won only four of them. Out of those, two came recently against Ireland where Babar Azam and Co won the three-match series 2-1. With the first-choice pace attack available, Pakistan would want to play with their best team against a team is like, who has some dangerous hitters and all of them are coming off good run-scoring form in the IPL.
England had all their players who were involved in the IPL return for the four-match series and miss the final stages of the tournament. Skipper Jos Buttler backed the decision while admitting that no international cricket should clash with the IPL but going into the T20 World Cup, participating in the series for all the players was the right choice.
Pakistan squad for England T20 series: Babar Azam (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Usman Khan
