LAHORE: Adopting a new way to select best probables for the 2027 ODI World Cup, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced the four squads for the National Champions Cup being held in Multan next month.
Another One-day tournament for the departments affiliated with the PCB is also on the cards in this year’s domestic season.
Maintaining the practice of giving multiple roles to one person, the PCB appointed former Pakistan captain Misbah-ulHaq and member of the selection committee as the head coach of Pakistan Gold team, which is being led by national ODI team skipper Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Misbah as a member of the national selection committee also picked the four teams.’The PCB [on Monday] announced the squads and the schedule of the National Champions Cup, which is set to run from Aug 11 to 18 at the Multan Cricket Stadium. All the seven matches in the tournament will be day-night,’ the PCB said in a press release issued on Monday.
According to the release, the 50-over List-A tournament marks the beginning of the 2026-27 domestic season and will comprise four teams -Pakistan Greens, Pakistan Whites, Pakistan Blues and Pakistan Gold.
Shadab Khan will lead Pakistan Greens, Saim Ayub will captain Pakistan Whites while Pakistan Blues will be led by Sahibzada Farhan.
The tournament will see the teams playing on a single-league round-robin basis with the top two contesting for the final on Aug 18.The PCB statement continued, ‘The national selection committee has announced set playing XIs for each team along with a tournament reserve pool of 13 players. Teams will field the announced 11 players and can pick from the reserve pool of 13 players only in the case of injury and concussion. The reserve players will accompany teams at training and on match-days.
The 44 players and the reserve pool for the said event have been selected keeping in mind the preparations for next year’s ICC World Cup as the focus shifts on the mega-event.
Squads: PAKISTAN GREENS: Shadab Khan (captain), Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Farhan Yousuf, Mehran Mumtaz. Mohammad Hasnain. MohammadSalmanMirza, NaseemShah, OmairBin Yousuf, Saad Baig (wicket-keeper), Sameer Minhas Support staff: Ijaz Ahmed Jr (head coach), Rehan Riaz (bowling coach), Khurram Shahzad (batting coach), Fahad Iqbal (fielding coach) PAKISTAN WHITES: Saim Ayub (captain), Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Haris Rauf, Hasan Nawaz, Khushdil Shah. Mohsin Riaz. Mohammad Wasim Jr, Saad Masood, Shahzaib Khan, Usman Khan(wicket-keeper) Supportstaff: Iqba1Imam(headcoach), Samiullah Niazi (bowling coach), Faisal Athar (batting coach), Saqib Faqir (fielding coach) PAKISTAN BLUES: Sahibzada Farhan (captain), Ahmed Daniyal, Arafat Minhas, Hasan Ali, Hussain Talat, Jahandad Khan, Rohail Nazir (wicket-keeper), Shamyl Hussain, Sufyan Moqim, Taimur Khan (wicket-keeper), Tayyab Tahir Support staff: Aizaz Cheema (head coach), Fahad Masood (bowling coach), Naveed Latif (batting coach), Hussain Khosa (fielding coach) PAKISTAN GOLD: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Abdul Samad, Abdul Subhan, Faisal Akram, Haider Ali, Kamran Ghulam, Maaz Sadagat, Mohammad Nawaz, Muhammad Akhlag (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Imran, Saad Khan Support staff: Misbah-ul-Haq (head coach), Waqas Ahmed(bowlingcoach), RiffatullahMohmand (batting coach), Atiq-ur-Rehman (fielding coach) Reserve pool: Batters: Mohammad Suleman, Mohammad Faig, Mohammad Irfan Khan All-rounders: Mubasir Khan. Danish Aziz Pacers: Arshad Iqbal, Mohammad Salman, Razaullah, Saqib Khan, Mohammad Amir Khan, Shahnawaz Dahani Wicket-keeper: Haseebullah Schedule: Aug 11: Pakistan Green vs Pakistan Whites Aug 12: Pakistan Blues vs Pakistan Gold Aug 13: Pakistan Blues vs Pakistan Whites Aug 14: Pakistan Gold vs Pakistan Green Aug 15: Pakistan Blues vs Pakistan Green Aug 16: Pakistan Gold vs Pakistan Whites Aug 18: Final