Why Pakistan Dropped Haris Rauf, Rizwan But Picked Babar For T20 World Cup? Head Coach Answers
Pakistan will play all their T20 World Cup 2026 matches in Sri Lanka, who are the co-hosts of the tournament.
Pakistan announced a 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup 2026, starting February 7 in India. Pakistan will play all their matches in Sri Lanka, who are the co-hosts of the tournament. While picking the team, the selection committee ignored star players like Haris Rauf and Mohammad Rizwan but included Babar Azam. The trio have played significant roles for Pakistan in ICC events in the past, but this time, the country's cricket board showed its faith in just Babar.
Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson gave the reasons behind the picks and the snubs.
Talking about Babar, he said, "We don't see him opening the batting (at the World Cup). He hasn't opened the batting for us because the ability to attack in the power play is very important."
"He certainly has the skill to control the middle overs, if required, and then to feed the strike to certain players. If we're chasing a lower score, he certainly has that ability to control a chase... the conditions in Australia are significantly different than what we're going to face in Sri Lanka, so we factored all those things in," the head coach explained.
Pakistan picked Mohammad Nafay and Usman Khan as wicketkeepers, while Mohammad Rizwan continued to remain out of favour in the format.
"Usman Khan has been exceptional since he came back. He has shown experience. His wicketkeeping is going probably better than expected. In Sri Lanka, it was high quality," Hesson said.
"The role we have for our keeper is someone through the middle, batting at five or six. You are not comparing the same, as Rizwan is a top-order batter. There's no spot in that role for a wicketkeeper," the head coach explained further.
Hesson revealed that Rauf was considered for the T20 World Cup, but he was excluded as the picked pace attack is capable of performing in all three phases of the game.
"We considered Haris Rauf, Wasim Jr, and Ahmed Daniyal, but they couldn't make it because the other three Shaheen, Salman, and Naseem can bowl in all three phases," said the head coach.
Pakistan's T20 World Cup 2026 squad: Salman Ali Agha (Captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Nafay (Wicketkeeper), Mohammad Nawaz, Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan (Wicketkeeper), Usman Tariq.
Pakistan Cricket Team
Babar Azam