LAHORE: With the arrival of foreign players, the international cricket is set to return to Pakistan after a long and frustrating hiatus of eight years.
A well-balanced World XI side comprising some of the game’s best players landed in Lahore in the wee hours on Monday for a Twenty20 International series against Sarfaraz XI. The World XI is being led by South African captain Faf du Plessis.
Since the 2009 militant attack on Sri Lankan team, no top Test team has toured Pakistan due to security concerns. In 2015, Zimbabwe played a short series in Lahore.
The Independence Cup includes three T20 internationals scheduled for September 12, 13 and 15 at the Gaddafi stadium.
All three T20 matches between Pakistan and World XI will be played at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore on Sept 12, 13 and 15.
The match will be broadcast live on DSports in India, Prime TV – UK, Ghazi TV – Bangladesh, Willow TV, USA, Dialog – Sri Lanka and cricketgateway.com.
In Pakistan, match can be seen live on PTV Sports, Ten Sports and Pakistan Television Broadcasters.
The live broadcast of the first T20I between Pakistan and World XI match will start at 07:00 PM IST (14:00 GMT).
Squad
Team Pakistan 16-member squad
- Sarfraz Ahmad (Captain – WK)
- Fakhar Zaman
- Ahmed Shehzad
- Baber Azam
- Shoaib Malik
- Umer Amin
- Imad Wasim
- Shadab Khan
- Muhammad Nawaz
- Faheem Ashraf
- Hassan Ali
- Amir Yamin
- Muhammad Amir
- Ruman Raees
- Usman Shinwari
- Sohail Khan
World XI
- Faf du Plessis (captain) (South Africa)
- Hashim Amla (South Africa)
- Samuel Badree (Windies)
- George Bailey (Australia)
- Paul Collingwood (England)
- Ben Cutting (Australia)
- Grant Elliott (New Zealand)
- Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh)
- David Miller (South Africa)
- Morne Morkel (South Africa)
- Tim Paine (wicketkeeper) (Australia)
- Thisara Perera (Sri Lanka)
- Imran Tahir (South Africa)
- Darren Sammy (Windies)