No Babar Azam as Pakistan make wholesale changes for Bangladesh ODIs

Babar Azam has been left out of the Pakistan ODI squad for the upcoming Bangladesh tour. The Pakistan Cricket Board announced a 15-man squad for the three-match series scheduled to begin next week and Babar is the notable exclusion.

The 31-year-old has been under the pump for a while now. After an ordinary debut campaign in the Big Bash League for Sydney Sixers, Babar found himself occupying the No.4 spot in the Pakistan XI during the ongoing T20 World Cup. A stuttering campaign eventually resulted in him being left out of the XI for the crucial fixture against Sri Lanka that Pakistan had to win by a big margin in order to make it to the semifinal.

Apart from Babar's exclusion, the selectors have also sprung a surprise by including as many as six uncapped players in the squad. The T20 World Cup's top runscorer Sahibzada Farhan is among the six. Apart from the opener, Abdul Samad, Maaz Sadaqat, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori, Saad Masood and Shamyl Hussain have been picked with all five recently featuring for Pakistan Shaheens against England Lions.

Mohammad Rizwan, who was not in the frame for the T20 World Cup, has retained his spot in the 50-over set up as the wicketkeeper and in the pace department, Haris Rauf holds on to his spot as well. All three games will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on March 11, 13 and 15.

Squad- Shaheen Shah Afridi (c), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Hussain Talat, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (wk), Saad Masood, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha and Shamyl Hussain