LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board on Sunday announced a 15-member squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, which starts on February 7.
Pacer Haris Rauf, who last represented Pakistan in the shortest format in September last year, could not make the squad.
The squad was unveiled during a press conference addressed by PCB Director High Performance 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.
Skipper Salman Agha, Faheem Ashraf, Khawaja Nafay, Salman Mirza and Usman Tariq have received their first mega-event call-ups.
Meanwhile, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan and Usman Khan have featured in one or more editions of the tournament since 2021.
Mohammad Rizwan, who has been out of the national T20 squad 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 for any ICC tournaments for three years and instead will play their respective matches at a neutral venue.
If Pakistan advances to the semi-finals and final, both the 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 start their World Cup campaign against Holland on February 7 in Colombo.
Pakistan have been placed in Group A along with India, USA, Netherlands and Namibia and will play all their matches in Sri Lanka.
They will then face USA on February 10, arch-rivals India on February 15 and Namibia on February 18 in their final group stage match.
For the uninitiated, the Super Eight round is scheduled to begin on February 21 in Colombo and end on March 1 in Kolkata.
The first semi-final will be held on March 3, the second on March 5, with the grand final set for March 8 in Ahmedabad or Colombo.
Squad
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 Us Khan Khan (wk)
This is a developing story and will be updated with additional details.
