To Miss National T20 Cup After T20I Snub- IPL

The Champions Trophy is now over, and now the T20 thrill is on as Indian fans are already looking forward to the Indian Premier League (IPL) that is going to start soon. However, the Pakistani players are also ready for the National T20 Cup that is going to start soon, as the Pakistan Super League is about to start. The T20 Cup is scheduled to start on March 14 and will feature both the young and the old from the Men in Green.

The tournament is going to be 20 teams, in four groups, and was expected to showcase big names like Pakistan’s top order batter Babar Azam and pace bowler Naseem Shah. But it turns out that the star duo will not be taking part in the tournament due to a congested international calendar. It was also a chance for them to prove their worth in the format in and out of the international arena, particularly after they were left out of the T20I squad for the series against New Zealand coming up.

The last T20I game of Babar was in December 2024. He has a very good record in the format overall but has failed to score a half-century in his last 11 matches. By comparison, Naseem Shah’s numbers are quite lackluster as he has only taken 10 wickets in his last 10 matches.

Babar and Naseem had a disappointing run in the 2025 Champions Trophy co-hosted by Pakistan and UAE and did not live up to the expectations of the fans. Babar’s form with the bat was poor; he only made one slow half century against New Zealand and was out cheaply against India. Pakistan, after two back-to-back losses, was knocked out of the tournament early and their last group stage game against Bangladesh was also washed out. They thus ended at the bottom of Group A. In the same way, Naseem also had an average performance in the tournament, he took only two wickets in two matches with an economy of 5.55.

Pakistan T20I & ODI Squads vs New Zealand

Pakistan T20I squad – Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Hasan Nawaz, Jahandad Khan, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Haris, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Omair Bin Yousaf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufyan Moqim and Usman Khan

Pakistan ODI squad – Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Salman Ali Agha (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Akif Javed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Sufyan Moqim and Tayyab Tahir.

Pakistan Tour of New Zealand, 2025