LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is awaiting the final update regarding top-order batter Saim Ayub’s fitness before announcing its national men’s team’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy, scheduled to run from February 19 to March 9.
According to the sources, the cricket board has decided against announcing the provisional squad for the eight-team tournament and will instead communicate the names to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to follow the procedure.
Sources further revealed that the squad will be finalised only after the decision regarding Saim Ayub is taken.
The squads can be finalised by February 11 after which ICC approval will be required.
As per the ICC guidelines, the participating teams are bound to submit their provisional squads one month prior to the sports parade of a global tournament.
Consequently, with the Champions Trophy 2025 support period starting from February 12, the cut-off date to submit the squad is Sunday (12 January).
Meanwhile, prior to the eight-team tournament, the green shirts will host South Africa and New Zealand for a tri-nation series, for which not major changes are expected except for the inclusion of left-handed opener Fakhar Zaman, the sources added.
The green shirts’ squad for the tri-nation series will then be retained for the Champions Trophy 2025 but Saim would remain in contention if the top-order batter gets medical clearance.
Sohail Imran Sohail Imran is a senior reporter for Geo News.- Saim Ayub