Champions One-Day Cup 2024: PCB announces captains and provisional squads for debut edition

On Thursday, September 12, Pakistan’s Champions One-Day Cup, a List-A cricket competition, will open for play. In the 50-over competition, five teams—the Wolves, Panthers, Dolphins, Stallions, and Lions—will face off for first place. Pakistan’s best cricket players will be playing because the competition does not coincide with any international matches.

On Friday, September 6, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) revealed the five teams’ tentative squads and captains.

The mentors, Misbah-ul-Haq (Wolves), Saqlain Mushtaq (Panthers), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Dolphins), Shoaib Malik (Stallions), and Waqar Younis (Lions), have chosen the captains.

The Wolves will be led by star wicketkeeper-battler Mohammad Rizwan, while the Panthers will be led by former white-ball vice captain Shadab Khan. Saud Shakeel, the Test team’s current deputy to Shan Masood, has been named the Dolphins’ captain. Mohammad Haris, the captain of Pakistan A, and Shaheen Afridi, the former captain of the T20 team, will lead the Lions and Stallions, respectively.

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In a single-league structure, the clubs will play one another once before moving on to the tournament’s business end, where three playoff games will determine the winners. September 29 is the scheduled date of the championship match. Every game will take place in Faisalabad.

Each team includes existing centrally contracted players. These are:

Dolphins: Saud Shakeel, Faheem Ashraf and Sarfaraz Ahmed
Lions: Abdullah Shafique, Aamir Jamal, Imam-ul-Haq and Shaheen Shah Afridi
Panthers: Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan and Usama Mir
Stallions: Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Tayyab Tahir and Zaman Khan
Wolves: Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Salman Ali Agha and Shahnawaz Dahani

Arshad Iqbal, Hasan Ali, Ihsanullah, and Muhammad Wasim Jr. are among the centrally contracted players who are not in the teams due to personal reasons, while Mohammad Nawaz is undergoing rehabilitation.

Here’s a look at provisional squads for Champions One-Day Cup 2024:

DOLPHINS: Saud Shakeel (captain, Karachi), Aftab Ibrahim (Karachi), Asif Ali (Faisalabad), Awais Ali (Gujranwala), Faheem Ashraf (Kasur), Kashif Ali (Rawalpindi), Mir Hamza (Karachi), Mohammad Huraira (Sialkot), Mohammad Abbas Afridi (Peshawar), Muhammad Akhlaq (Kamoki), Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (Karachi), Muhammad Riazullah (Peshawar), Noman Ali (Hyderabad), Qasim Akram (Lahore), Sameen Gul (Jamrud), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Karachi), Sahibzada Farhan (Peshawar), Sufiyan Moqim (Kotli), Umar Amin (Rawalpindi) and Usman Qadir (Lahore)

Mentor – Sarfaraz Ahmed

LIONS: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain, Peshawar), Abdullah Shafique (Sialkot), Aamir Jamal (Islamabad), Aamer Yamin (Multan), Faisal Akram (Multan), Hassan Nawaz (Islamabad), Hunain Shah (Lahore), Imam-ul-Haq (Lahore), Imran Butt (Lahore), Khushdil Shah (Bannu), Mohammad Asghar (Karachi), Muhammad Irfan Khan (Mianwali), Mohammad Taha (Karachi), Omair Bin Yousuf (Karachi), Rohail Nazir (Islamabad), Shahab Khan (Mardan), Sharoon Siraj (Sahiwal), Sirajuddin (Bajaur) and Waqar Hussain (Okara)