Hafeez’s participation in T20I series against South Africa in limbo

Former skipper and senior cricketer Muhammad Hafeez's participation in the upcoming T20I series against South Africa is in limbo as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) directed cricketers to report by February 3 due to bio-secure bubble protocols, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Saturday.

Hafeez is playing T10 League and conveyed to the PCB that he could not come leaving the T10 League as per the agreement, the TV channel reported.

PCB International Wing said those players who will not leave the T10 League, will also not be included in the series against South Africa.

T10 League will be held from January 28 to February 6, the TV channel reported. 

Bio-secure bubble, also referred to as bubble, was introduced in many sports during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an environment for the players which is cut off from the outside world to prevent the risk of being contracted with the coronavirus.

Mohammad Wasim, the newly appointed chief selector of Pakistan Cricket during his first interaction with the media while announcing the team against South Africa explained each exclusion and inclusion to the journalists with help of data-based presentation on screen, providing statistics of every player in question.

“Pakistan is behind in terms of scientific analysis of the data for team selection. I will definitely look on data and comparative & situational analysis to pick a suitable player,” Wasim said.

Here is the schedule for the Test series: 

Match              Date                Venue                Time

1st Test            Jan 26-30         NSK, Karachi   10am PST

2nd Test          Feb 4-8            Rawalpindi Stadium   10am PST

Here is the schedule for the T20 series: 

Match              Date                Venue                          Time

1st T20I           Feb 11 Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore       3:30pm PST

2nd T20I         Feb 13 Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore       3:30pm PST

3rd T20I          Feb 14 Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore       3:30pm PST

Pakistan and South Africa's squad for the Test series: 

Babar Azam (Captain), Abid Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Imran Butt, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Kamran Ghulam, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Yasir Shah, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Tabish Khan.

Quinton de Kock (Captain) Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Kagiso Rabada, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie van der Dussen, Anrich Nortje, Wiaan Mulder, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks, Kyle Verreynne, Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Tabraiz Shamsi, George Linde, Daryn Dupavillon, Ottniel Baartman.