Sahibzada Farhan to lead Pakistan Shaheens in red-ball matches in Australia

KARACHI (APP): Sahibzada Farhan has been named captain of Pakistan Shaheens for two four-day matches against Bangladesh ‘A’, that will be played in Darwin, Australia from 19 to 29 July.

28-year-old Sahibzada Farhan has featured for Pakistan in five T20Is. The right-handed batter has also played 58 first-class matches, scoring 4,401 runs, which includes eight centuries and 27 half-centuries.

On the tour, Pakistan Shaheens are also scheduled to play two 50-over matches and nine-team T20 tournament in Darwin. The captain for the white-ball series will be announced in due course.

The 15-member red-ball Shaheens’ squad are all set to depart for Darwin in the wee hours of Saturday from Karachi via Dubai. In the squad, fast bowler Hunain Shah has been replaced with spinner Faisal Akram, after the former was ruled out of the tour due to back injury.

Pakistan red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie is also traveling with the side to Darwin as the team’s head coach. He will return to Pakistan in the first week of August after the second four-day match against Bangladesh ‘A’, which concludes on 29 July. Former Australian fast bowler will assume responsibilities as the national side’s head coach and commence preparations for the two-Test series against Bangladesh, which will be played in Rawalpindi and Karachi.

Pakistan Shaheens – Sahibzada Farhan (captain), Faisal Akram, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Kashif Ali, Khurram Shahzad, Mehran Mumtaz, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mubasir Khan, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Omair Bin Yousuf, Shahnawaz Dahani, Tayyab Tahir and Umar Amin.

Player Support Personnel – Jason Gillespie (head coach for red-ball matches), Abdul Rehman (head coach for white-ball matches and will join the side on 28 July), Mohammad Masroor (Assistant coach-cum-manager), Mohammad Asad (physiotherapist), Imranullah (trainer) and Usman Hashmi (analyst).