The Pakistan Cricket Board has announced the squad for upcoming Asia Cup. The 15-member squad will be led by skipper Babar Azam and Shadab Khan will be his deputy. Pakistan has won the Asia Cup for five times. They last won the tournament in 2014. In the recent years, Pakistan have done really well in the shortest format of cricket and therefore they definitely have the potential to win the Asia Cup this year. Several expected names have failed to make into the squad for Asia Cup while a few were unavailable for selection due to injuries. The most notable omission from the Pakistan’s squad is of fast bowler Shaheen Afridi. Fans expected to see him playing in the Asia Cup because he is the backbone of Pakistan’s bowling. Let’s see Why Shaheen Afridi is not playing in Asia Cup 2022?
Pakistan’s Squad for Asia Cup 2022
Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Hasnain.
Why Shaheen Afridi is not playing in Asia Cup 2022?
Cricket fans were very eager to see the battle between Shaheen Afridi and the Indian top order batsmen again. He played a very crucial role in Pakistan’s stunning victory against India in the Twenty20 World Cup 2021. Unfortunately, Shaheen Afridi is not playing in Asia Cup 2022 because he was unavailable for selection due to injury.
Shaheen suffered a knee injury that during the Pakistan’s recent tour to Sri Lanka. However, he did not sustain this injury while bowling. At the time of Sri Lanka’s second innings in the first test match in Galle, Shaheen Afridi tried to stop the ball to save a boundary and in doing so, he made a diving effort. As a result of that dive, his knee slammed on the ground. After that, he stayed on ground for some time before going off and applying some ice-pack over the knee. At that time, it didn’t seem like a really serious injury but it just got worse.
The doctors advised him to take a four to six week break from playing. He was rested for the rest of the Sri Lanka Tour and also for Netherlands series. As a result, he was immediately ruled out of the Asia Cup T20Is.
Even after being injured, the young pacer traveled to UAE with the Pakistan’s squad. The fans are hoping to see him in the upcoming T20 World Cup in the next month.
– I think we are missing one person out there on the field right now… #PakVsInd #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/KPwJPj1ORW
— Shoaib Malik ?? (@realshoaibmalik) August 28, 2022
