Rumman Raees, the Sindh fast bowler has been announced as the replacement for Wahab Riaz, who was earlier ruled out of the ongoing Champions Trophy 2017.

Raees, who played for Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League, has played two T20Is for Pakistan – both against West Indies – with the last coming in the month of April during Pakistan tour to the country.

His inclusion in the side is a bit of a surprise keeping in mind the fact that earlier PCB was looking ways to add Mohammed Abbas due to his recent success with the red ball in Test cricket.

Pakistan Cricket Board has sent an official word to ICC to add the left-arm-pacer in the team, who will be allowed to join the squad once the technical committee approves the request of the board.

“It is a great opportunity for me to make my mark on the team. I was only able to play one match against West Indies (the fourth T20I) but now I am looking to play more matches and perform,”Raees told The Express Tribune.

“I always wanted to bowl to the top batsmen in the world which include de Villiers, who is a dangerous batsman, Kohli and Dhoni, who are also two of the best batsmen in modern cricket,” he added.

He has to wait to make his ODI debut, as Pakistan has made two changes to their squad for the game against South Africa. Fakhar Zaman and Junaid Khan have been included in playing XI in place of Ahmed Shehzad and Wahab Riaz, respectively.

Pakistan kicked off their Champions Trophy campaign with a loss against India by a margin of 124 runs. Batting first, the defending champions put a total of 319 for three on the board. Continues intrusion of water droplets during the game meant that Pakistan was asked to chase 289 runs in 41 overs, which they failed to chase by the virtue of being bowled out for a total of 164.

It was during the first innings when Wahab Riaz had to leave the field due to an ankle injury and did not bat as well. He was later ruled out for two weeks. Meanwhile, it is to be noted that Mohammed Amir too left the field during India’s innings but he did come out to bat, which indicated that he is fit and is ready to take part in their next game against South Africa.