The former Pakistan legendary pacer Waqar Younis has included this surprise pick in his Pakistan squad for the World Cup-2019.
While picking his team for the World Cup, Waqar who has previously been coach of the team has included the senior pacer Wahab Riaz in his team to play in the world cup.
Wahab Riaz has not played in the ODIs since the Champions Trophy 2017 but been a regular player in the domestic tournaments. He took 17 wickets in PSL 2019 with an impressive economy of 6.78 and took five wickets in his first match of the ongoing Pakistan Cup, a domestic 50 overs competition. The five-wicket haul came on the back of an intimidating spell full of pace and short balls for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
While waqar picked him for the team, Riaz has been left out of the 23 probables named for fitness tests by PCB. Apart from Riaz Waqar has also banked on the experience of Shoaib Malik, Hafeez and Mohammad Amir.
Waqar, like his bowling partner Wasim Akram, has not picked a third regular opening batsman and considers Babar as a back-up opener. Babar opened the batting twice for Pakistan in the ODIs when Waqar was coach of the team in 2015. He regularly opens the innings in T20Is and is number one batsman in the format.
Waqar also picked the middle-order batsman Haris Sohail, who scored two centuries in the ODIs against Australia.