Babar-Rizwan-Shaheen leave, Pakistan team announced for Asian Games; New player becomes captain

Pakistan Asian Games 2026 Squad: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced a 15-member team for the Asian Games 2026 to be played in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan in September-October. Four such players have got a chance in the team, who have not played T20 International match till now. The captaincy has been handed over to Sahibzada Farhan. This will be the first time that Farhan will take charge of Pakistan in any format.

The four new players include Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Maaz Sadakat and Saad Masood. At the same time, Abdul Samad has been given the responsibility of vice-captain, who has played 5 T20 International matches so far. But he has not played any match of this format since March last year.

Talking about the team’s new captain Sahibzada Farhan, Farhan, who plays white ball cricket, has played 6 ODIs and 46 T20 International matches so far. He scored 101 runs in 6 innings of ODI. Apart from this, in 45 innings of T20 International, the Pakistani batsman scored 1305 runs at an average of 30.34 and strike rate of 136.64, which included 2 centuries and 10 half-centuries.

Sahibzada Farhan to captain as Pakistan announce their squad for this year’s Asian Games 👀

Details 👇https://t.co/CoPUXBYsPS

— ICC (@ICC) June 10, 2026

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Usman Khan has been selected as the main wicketkeeper in the team. Let us tell you that Pakistan’s event will start from 24th September, while the medal matches will be played on 3rd October.

Star players did not get place

The names of star players like Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi and Shadab Khan were missing from the team. Now it will be interesting to see how Pakistan performs in the tournament with this squad.

Pakistan’s squad for Asian Games 2026

Sahibzada Farhan (captain), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Arafat Minhas, Haider Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Saad Masood, Saim Ayub, Sufyan Mokim, Usman Khan.

Pakistan’s performance in Asian Games

Cricket was a part of the Asian Games thrice (2010, 2014, 2022). Pakistan finished fourth in the 2022 edition (to be held in 2023), where they won one match and lost two.

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