Babar Azam and Champions one-day Cup
Babar Azam and Champions one-day Cup

Babar Azam was snubbed for the captaincy role, as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) unveiled the preliminary squads for the Champions One-Day Cup 2024. Babar Azam and Shan Masood will not lead any of the tournament’s five teams, which comes as a great surprise.

It should be mentioned that Babar Azam and Shan Masood are the leaders of Pakistan’s red and white ball teams, respectively. However, both players will compete as specialist batters in this competition.

The Champions One-Day Cup will feature Pakistan’s best cricket players and will be played in a single-league format. Misbah-ul-Haq’s Wolves will play Saqlain Mushtaq’s Panthers in the inaugural game on September 12 at Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.

Babar Azam not considered for captaincy

Saud Shakeel, Pakistan’s Test vice-captain, will head the Dolphins, while Shaheen Shah Afridi, a former Pakistan T20I captain, will command the Lions. Shadab Khan, a former white-ball vice-captain, will lead the Panthers. Mohammad Haris, captain of the Pakistan Shaheens, will lead the Stallions, while former all-format vice-captain Mohammad Rizwan will lead the Wolves.

The PCB has also announced tentative squads for the competition, which were chosen by team mentors via a draft from a pool of 150 players. Fitness exams were a major component in the selection process, and players on domestic contracts had to pass them.

Among the 150 players chosen, 125 were best performers in the previous three domestic seasons, while 25 were chosen as wildcards based on their performance for Pakistan and other national teams.

The final squads will be pared to 15 players on September 10, with fitness tests for centrally contracted players set for September 7 and 9.

Here are the provisional squads for the five Champions one-day Cup teams:

DOLPHINS: Saud Shakeel (captain, Karachi), Aftab Ibrahim (Karachi), Asif Ali (Faisalabad), Awais Ali (Gujranwala), Faheem Ashraf (Kasur), Kashif Ali (Rawalpindi), Mir Hamza (Karachi), Mohammad Huraira (Sialkot), Mohammad Abbas Afridi (Peshawar), Muhammad Akhlaq (Kamoki), Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (Karachi), Muhammad Riazullah (Peshawar), Noman Ali (Hyderabad), Qasim Akram (Lahore), Sameen Gul (Jamrud), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Karachi), Sahibzada Farhan (Peshawar), Sufiyan Moqim (Kotli), Umar Amin (Rawalpindi) and Usman Qadir (Lahore)

Mentor – Sarfaraz Ahmed

LIONS: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain, Peshawar), Abdullah Shafique (Sialkot), Aamir Jamal (Islamabad), Aamer Yamin (Multan), Faisal Akram (Multan), Hassan Nawaz (Islamabad), Hunain Shah (Lahore), Imam-ul-Haq (Lahore), Imran Butt (Lahore), Khushdil Shah (Bannu), Mohammad Asghar (Karachi), Muhammad Irfan Khan (Mianwali), Mohammad Taha (Karachi), Omair Bin Yousuf (Karachi), Rohail Nazir (Islamabad), Shahab Khan (Mardan), Sharoon Siraj (Sahiwal), Sirajuddin (Bajaur) and Waqar Hussain (Okara)

Mentor – Waqar Younis

PANTHERS: Shadab Khan (captain, Islamabad), Abdul Wahid Bangalzai (Quetta), Ahmed Bashir (Lahore), Ali Asfand (Faisalabad), Ali Raza (Sheikhupura), Amad Butt (Sialkot), Arafat Minhas (Multan), Azan Awais (Sialkot), Haider Ali (Attock), Mohammad Hasnain (Hyderabad), Mohammad Umar (Karachi), Mohammad Zeeshan (Faisalabad), Mubasir Khan (Rawalpindi), Rehan Afridi (Khyber), Rizwan Mehmood (Hyderabad), Saim Ayub (Karachi), Umar Siddiq (Lahore), Usama Mir (Sialkot), Usman Khan (Karachi) and Usman Salahuddin (Lahore)

Mentor – Saqlain Mushtaq

STALLIONS: Mohammad Haris (captain, Peshawar), Abrar Ahmed (Karachi), Adil Amin (Peshawar), Azam Khan (Peshawar), Babar Azam (Lahore), Haris Rauf (Islamabad), Hussain Talat (Lahore), Jahandad Khan (Rawalpindi), Junaid Ali (Lahore), Maaz Ahmad Sadaqat (Peshawar), Mehran Mumtaz (Rawalpindi), Mohammad Ali (Sialkot), Mohammad Amir Khan (Swat), Saad Khan (Hyderabad), Shamyl Hussain (Islamabad), Shan Masood (Karachi), Tayyab Tahir (Sarai Alamgir), Ubaid Shah (Lahore), Yasir Khan (Rawalpindi) and Zaman Khan (Mirpur)

Mentor – Shoaib Malik

WOLVES: Mohammad Rizwan (captain, Peshawar), Fakhar Zaman (Abbottabad), Abdul Samad (Faisalabad), Akif Javed (FATA), Ali Usman (Multan), Bilawal Bhatti (Muridke), Haseebullah (Pishin), Iftikhar Ahmed (Peshawar), Kamran Ghulam (Peshawar), Mohammad Faizan (Faisalabad), Mohammad Imran Jnr (Peshawar), Mohammad Sarwar Afridi (FATA), Muhammad Imran (Khanewal), Naseem Shah (Lahore), Nisar Ahmed (Lahore), Salman Ali Agha (Lahore), Shahnawaz Dahani (Larkana), Zahid Mehmood (Dadu) and Zain Abbas (Multan)

Mentor – Misbah-ul-Haq

Schedule for the Champions Cup tournament: (all matches at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad; the 16 Sep match will start at 9.30 am, the rest of the matches will start at 3 pm)

12 Sep – Wolves v Panthers
13 Sep – Stallions v Lions
14 Sep – Dolphins v Panthers
15 Sep – Wolves v Stallions
16 Sep – Lions v Panthers
17 Sep – Dolphins v Wolves
19 Sep – Stallions v Dolphins
20 Sep – Lions v Wolves
21 Sep – Panthers v Stallions
22 Sep – Dolphins v Lions
24 Sep – Qualifier (Team No.1 v Team No. 2)
25 Sep – Eliminator 1 (Team No.3 v Team No.4)
27 Sep – Eliminator 2 (Losing Qualifier v Winning Eliminator 2)
29 Sep – Final

Also Read: Shan Masood To Be Dumped As Pakistan Test Captain; New Captain For England Tests