LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has delayed the announcement of its World Cup squad until late May due to fitness and performance issues with some players, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported on Wednesday.

A PCB source told PTI that Pakistan would announce their T20 World Cup squad either on May 23 or May 24 — which is the deadline set by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for participating teams to make changes to their squads without seeking permission from the World Cup Technical Committee.

The management and selectors are concerned over niggling injuries to Mohammad Rizwan, Azam Khan, Irfan Khan Niazi and Haris Rauf and will observe them and performances in Ireland and England.

The selectors will announce the squad for the tours of Ireland and England on Thursday and the team management and selectors will assess the fitness and performance of selected players before announcing the World Cup squad.

“It (delay) doesn’t matter because all these teams can change their entire squad by May 24 after that changes can only be allowed on fitness or injury basis with approval of the technical committee,” said the source. “That is why the PCB and selectors have decided to hold off until after the first match in England.”

The source added that the selectors also wanted to give more time to Babar Azam and other players to settle down and recapture the old bonding in the dressing room before the WC squad is announced.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2024