Multan and Faisalabad will host the National Twenty20 Cup, which will stroll into action from August 25 at Multan Cricket Stadium. The drafting has of the event was held here at a local hotel on Thursday.
The tournament will commence from August 25, 2017 in two phases, where the first round matches would be played in Multan Cricket Stadium till August 31 while the second and final stage of the tournament would start on September 4 in Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad and conclude on September 10.
The eight participating teams Karachi Whites, Lahore Whites, Lahore Blues, Islamabad, Fata, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Faisalabad selected their teams from a list of over 150 players from across the country. All participating teams were picked by their respective regional head, selector, captain and coach.
A total number of 31 matches including the final will be played, where each team will play seven matches. The inaugural match will be played between twin teams of Lahore, as Lahore Whites will take on Lahore Blues on August 25 at Multan Cricket Stadium at 4pm. The top four teams among the eight teams will compete in the semifinal on September 9 at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad, whereas the final will take place at the same venue on September 10.
Addressing the ceremony, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) cricket operations director Haroon Rasheed expressed his pleasure at the organisation of the tournament and hoped that the event would provide a platform for youngsters to showcase their talent.
Squads:
LAHORE WHITES: Salman Butt (capt), Wahab Riaz, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Sami Aslam, Asif Ali, Asif Zakir, Ehsan Adil, M Irfan (FATA), Aamer Yamin, Bilal Asif, Amad Butt, Raza Ali Dar, Azhar Ali, Hassan Khan.
LAHORE BLUES: M Hafeez (capt), Babar Azam, Ahmed Shehzad, Hussain Talat, Imam-ul-Haq, Tayyab Tahir, Abid Ali, Khalid Usman, Atif Jabbar, M Aamer, Junaid Khan, Agha Salman, Saad Nasim, Adnan Akmal, Ghulam Muddasar.
ISLAMABAD: Imad Wasim (capt), Hassan Ali, Zohaib Ahmed, Sarmad Bhatti, Nauman Anwar, Adil Amin, Shan Masood, Rahat Ali, Umar Gul, Shoaib Malik, Rohail Nazir, Ali Sarfraz, Shehzad Azam, Faizan Riaz, Arsal Sheikh.
KARACHI WHITES: Sarfraz Ahmed (capt), Asad Shafiq, Anwar Ali, Rumman Raees, Khurram Manzoor, Shahid Yousaf, Akbar-ur-Rehman, Mir Hamza, Tabish Khan, Haris Sohail, Zulfiqar Babar, Danish Aziz, Azam Hussain, Jahid Ali, Ibrar Ahmed.
RAWALPINDI: Umar Amin (capt), Sohail Tanvir, Shadab Khan, M Nawaz, Fawad Alam, Zain Abbas, Ahsan Ali, M Irfan Jr, M Abbas, Iftikhar Ahmed, M Asghar, Rameez Aziz, Nasir Nawaz, Adnan Ghaus, Umair Masood.
PESHAWAR: M Rizwan (c), Zohaib Khan, Israrullah, Imran Khan Jr, Riffatullah, Musaddiq Ahmed, Naved Yasin, Waqas Maqsood, M Imran, Fakhar Zaman, Sohail Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Imran Khan Sr, Usman Qadir, Saif Badar.
FAISALABAD: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Saeed Ajmal, Asif Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Sohaib Maqsood, Imran Butt, Khurram Shehzad, M Sami, Taj Wali, Sahibzada Farhan, Yasir Shah, Ali Waqas, Imran Khalid, Ali Shan, Asad Raza.
FATA: Usman Shinwari (capt), Rehan Afridi, Asif Afridi, Khushdil Shah, Mukhtar Ahmed, Naved Malik, Awais Zia, Mukhtar Ahmed, Naved Malik, Awais Zia, Bilawal Bhatti, Sameen Gul, Usama Mir, Hammad Azam, M Naeem, Nabi Gul, Irfan Rasheed, Shaheen Shah.
