With Green Shirts set to commence their T20 World Cup 2024 journey in their first match against the United States, former Pakistan wicket-keeper Rashid Latif has shared the names of the players he believes should be part of the national side's playing XI.
The Babar Azam-led side will lock horns with the US in Dallas on June 6 in their first match of the mega event. Whereas for the co-hosts it will be their second outing of the tournament.
Latif took to social mediaplatform X, formerly Twitter, to include two frontline spinners in the Men in Green's lineup namely Abrar Ahmed and Shadab Khan.
Leaving out pacer Naseem Shah, the ex-cricketer said that if it was up to him he would either pick Salman Ali Agha or Mohammad Haris if they were part of the squad.
Other nine players that Latif named were Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Usman Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Amir and Haris Rauf.
The former player's views on the team's playing XI comes days after he said that a senior player such as Rizwan should be Pakistan's wicketkeeper as he has been leading the game from behind the wickets and removing him all of a sudden would not serve the team well.
"The team has two wicketkeepers, Usman Khan and Rizwan. I suggest that wicketkeeping should be done by a senior player," he said while speaking on a local sports programme.
"Rizwan was running the game from behind for the last four years [but] now you have removed that guard," he added.
He then talked about the reason why Pakistan have been suffering recently saying that their combination isn’t right and the players should be ready to play according to the match situation.
"They are not getting their combination right, which is their biggest problem. Not only shuffle, but players need to be prepared to play at floating roles now in T20 cricket as per the match situation," Latif added.
Babar Azam (c), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan, Azam Khan, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abrar Ahmed, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf.