LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board on Sunday announced a 15-member squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, which will begin on February 7.
Pacer Haris Rauf, who last represented Pakistan in the shortest format in September last year, was unable to make the team.
The team was launched during a press conference led by PCB high performance director and men’s national selection committee member Aqib Javed, Pakistan T20I captain Salman Ali Agha and white-ball head coach Michael Hesson at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Captain Salman Agha, Faheem Ashraf, Khawaja Nafay, Salman Mirza and Usman Tariq have received their first call-ups for a mega event.
Meanwhile, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan and Usman Khan have appeared in one or more editions of the tournament since 2021.
Mohammad Rizwan, who has been out of the national T20 team since December 2024, will miss his first T20 World Cup after featuring in three editions in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
The 2009 champions will play all their matches in Sri Lanka under the ‘Fusion Formula’, which states that Pakistan or India will not visit each other in any ICC tournament for three years and will instead play their respective matches at a neutral venue.
If Pakistan advances to the semi-finals and final, both knockout matches will be held in Colombo. Otherwise, the semi-finals and final will be held in Kolkata and Ahmedabad respectively.
It is pertinent to mention that the green shirts will begin their World Cup campaign against the Netherlands on February 7 in Colombo.
Pakistan has been placed in Group A alongside India, United States, Netherlands and Namibia and will play all its matches in Sri Lanka.
They will then face the United States on February 10, arch-rivals India on February 15 and Namibia on February 18 in their final group stage match.
For the unversed, the Super Eight round is scheduled to begin on February 21 in Colombo and conclude on March 1 in Kolkata.
The first semi-final will be held on March 3, the second on March 5 and the grand final is scheduled for March 8 in Ahmedabad or Colombo.
Equipment
Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Mohammad Nafay (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan (wk) and Usman Tariq
This is a developing story and is being updated with more details.
