Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will defend their National T20 title under the leadership of Khalid Usman as the all-rounder has been announced the captain of the winners of the 2020 and 2021 editions.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have had an impressive run in the last two editions of the tournament, winning 15 off 24 matches, and will be eager to continue their form when they open their campaign on 31 August, the second day of the tournament, against Central Punjab.

Another tournament win will further stamp Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a T20 powerhouse, embellish their trophy cabinet with the prestigious silverware and another PKR5million in their bank account.

All-rounder Faheem Ashraf takes the reins of Central Punjab, the runners up of the previous edition, who will lock horns with Yasir Shah-captained Balochistan in the second match of the tournament on the National T20 opening day (30 August).

The tournament will begin with what promises to be a thriller with Saud Shakeel’s Sindh taking on Hasan Ali’s Southern Punjab. Northern, the home side, will begin their campaign on 1 September and will be captained by top-order batter Umar Amin.

The squads, both for the National T20 and Cricket Associations T20 (details below) have been finalised by national men’s chief selector, Muhammad Wasim, in consultation with the six Cricket Associations. The selectors have ensured that the players on the fringes of the national side get the opportunities to continue to push their case for the national selection and this summer’s top performers in the City Cricket Association and Divisional tournaments climb another rung.

The National T20 will be played in two legs with Pindi Cricket Stadium playing host to first 16 of the 33 matches from 30 August till 7 September. Multan Cricket Stadium will stage the second leg between 10 till 19 September.

The National T20 teams will move to Rawalpindi on Thursday (26 August) to commence their preparations of the tournament.

To ensure the players participating in the tournament get their due share of exposure and the fans get to enjoy the action-packed matches, the double-headers from 30 August till 11 September have been scheduled in a manner that they do not clash with the ACC Asia Cup T20.

The first match of the day will commence on 0930 and the second will begin at 1400. From 12 September, the first of the two matches will start at 1500, while the second will begin at 1930.

As the Pakistan Cricket Board continues to incentivise domestic performers, PKR0.4million will be shared equally between the tournament’s top performers (player of the tournament, best batter of the tournament, best bowler of the tournament and best wicketkeeper of the tournament).

The best performer of every match will get PKR25,000 and the player of the final will bag PKR35,000. The team ending second in the tournament will get PKR2.5million.

The head coaches of the first XI teams for the 2022-23 domestic season are: Mushtaq Ahmed (Balochistan), Abdul Razzaq (Central Punjab), Abdul Rehman (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Ijaz Ahmed Snr (Northern), Ghulam Ali (Sindh) and Shahid Anwar (Southern Punjab).

First XI squads:

Balochistan: Yasir Shah (c), Shan Masood (vc), Abdul Wahid Bangalzai, Akif Javed, Ali Waqas, Amad Butt, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Haseebullah (wk), Hussain Talat, Junaid Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Junaid and Sajjad Ali

Central Punjab: Faheem Ashraf (c), Abdullah Shafique (vc), Ahmed Shehzad, Ahmed Daniyal, Ali Asfand, Hunain Shah, Irfan Khan Niazi, Junaid Ali (wk), Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Faizan, Qasim Akram, Shoaib Malik, Tayyab Tahir, Usama Mir and Wahab Riaz

Northern: Umar Amin (c), Ali Imran (vc),  Aamer Jamal, Hassan Nawaz, Mehran Mumtaz, Mubasir Khan, Mohammad Huraira, Nasir Nawaz, Rohail Nazir (wk), Salman Irshad, Shoaib Amir, Sohail Tanvir, Umer Khan, Usman Khan Shinwari and Zaman Khan

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Khalid Usman (c), Kamran Ghulam (vc), Adil Amin, Aamer Azmat, Arshad Iqbal, Asif Afridi, Ihsanullah, Imran Khan Snr, Israrullah, Maaz khan, Mohammad Abbas Afridi,

Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Sarwar Afridi, Mohammad Amir Khan and Sahibzada Farhan

Sindh: Saud Shakeel (c), Mir Hamza (vc), Abrar Ahmed, Anwar Ali, Asif Mahmood, Danish Aziz, Omair Bin Yousuf, Rumman Raees, Saad Khan, Saim Ayub, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Sharjeel Khan, Syed Faraz Ali, Zahid Mehmood and Zeeshan Zameer

Southern Punjab: Hasan Ali (c), Salman Ali Agha (vc), Ahmad Bashir, Ali Majid, Amir Yamin, Faisal Akram, Hassan Khan, Mohammad Imran Randhawa, Moinuddin, Mohammad Ilyas, Sameen Gul, Sharoon Siraj, Sohaib Maqsood, Zain Abbas and Zeeshan Ashraf (wk)

Cricket Associations T20

The Cricket Associations T20 tournament, in which the second XI sides of the six Cricket Associations feature, will begin from 2 September and will also be played on the double round robin basis.

The tournament schedule is available here.

Cricket Associations T20 will be staged at the Bugti Stadium, Quetta and the team that finishes on the top of the points table at the completion of the league on 15 September will win the competition.

The teams will travel to Quetta on 26 August, where they will undergo pre-tournament preparations.

The head coaches for the second XI teams for the 2022-23 season are: Habib Baloch (Balochistan), Imran Farhat (Central Punjab), Aftab Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Kamran Khan (Northern), Mohammad Masroor (Sindh) and Syed Iqbal Imam (Southern Punjab).

Second XI squads:

Balochistan: Bismillah Khan (c & wk), Imran Butt (vc), Abdul Hanan, Ayyaz Tasawar, Basit Ali, Daud Khan, Gohar Faiz, Jalat Khan, Mohamamd Shahid, Mohammad Ibrahim Snr, Muhammad Azeem Ghumman, Rasool Bakhsh, Taj Wali, Tariq Jamil and Zainullah Snr

Central Punjab: Rizwan Hussain (c), Muhammad Akhlaq (vc & wk), Abdul Samad, Abid Ali, Ali Shafiq, Asad Raza, Gauhar Hafeez, Haseeb-ur-Rehman, Imran Dogar, Mohammad Irfan Jnr, Mohammad Rameez Jnr, Mohammad Waheed, Mirza Salman, Mukhtar Ahmed and Umar Akmal

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Rehan Afridi (c & wk), Maaz Ahmed Sadaqat (vc), Ahmed Khan, Arshadullah, Haseeb Khan, Irfanullah Shah, Mohammad Farooq, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Nisar Afridi, Mohammad Usman, Nabi Gul, Niaz Khan, Tahir Khan, Usman Tariq and Zubair Khan

Northern: Umair Masood (c & wk), Musa Khan (vc), Abidullah, Aqib Liaqat, Ather Mehmood, Atif Khan, Farhan Shafiq, Hassan Raza, Kashif Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Shadab Majeed, Sufiyan Muqeem, Taimor Khan, Taimor Sultan and Zeeshan Malik

Sindh: Mohammad Taha (c), Hasan Mohsin (vc), Aliyan Mehmood, Ammad Alam, Arish Ali Khan, Ghulam Mudassar, Jahanzaib Sultan, Kashif Ali, Majid Asghar, Mohammad Afzal (wk), Mohammad Suleman, Mohammad Umar, Rizwan Mehmood, Shahid Mirani and Sohail Khan

Southern Punjab: Rahat Ali (c), Ali Usman (vc), Ahmed Hassan, Ali Imran, Humayun Altaf, Kaleemullah, Majid Ali, Mohammad Jahangir, Mohammad Junaid Awan, Mohammad Shehzad, Mohammad Sudais, Tahir Hussain, Umar Siddiq (wk), Waqar Hussain and Yousaf Babar

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The Hong Kong Men’s team have qualified for the Asia Cup where they will go into battle against cricket giants, Pakistan and India.

Hong Kong finished unbeaten in the Asia Cup Qualifiers. The final game against the UAE acted as an unofficial final with both teams needing victory to win the Asia Cup Qualifiers and secure a spot at the Asia Cup. Hong Kong took the honours with a convincing victory and will now travel from Oman to the Dubai for the Asia Cup; one of the biggest tournaments in the world.

Chairman of Cricket on the CHK Board, Burji Shroff had this to say: 

“For Hong Kong to remain unbeaten during all of their qualifying matches, and qualify for the Asia Cup is an incredible achievement. Even more so, given that the team arrived at this tournament after having been on the road for over 10 weeks.

The resilience and commitment this group has demonstrated throughout an incredibly long period of touring, which has seen them travel to no less than eight countries across three continents, shows how much pride these players have in representing Hong Kong.

We are incredibly proud of the team and excited to see them showcase their skills, as they take on two of the best T20i teams in the world. We wish Trent, Nizakat and the team every success at the Asia Cup.”

This will be Hong Kong’s fourth time competing at the Asia Cup having previously qualified for the 2004, 2008, 2018 Asia Cup Tournaments.

Hong Kong find themselves in a Group A with India who are currently ranked first in the world and Pakistan who are currently ranked third in the world. Group B is made up of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka all three ranked within the top 10 teams in the world.

The top two teams in each group will qualify for the Super Fours stage of the tournament which will follow a round robin format with the top two teams qualifying for the Asia Cup Final.

Captain Nizakat Khan had this to say:

“As a group we always believed we could win the Asia Cup Qualifiers and qualify for the Asia Cup but to do it and book a spot at the Asia Cup, that feeling is hard to describe.

This group has been through a lot over the last few months of touring but it has made us stronger as group. We back each other up no matter what and that mentality is something that makes this group special and I have no doubt that it is a key to our success.

The Asia incredibly special tournament, especially for an associate nation. We are all very proud to represent Hong Kong and we can’t wait to get to Dubai and take on the big teams. Bring it on.”

Hong Kong’s first match will be against India, a team that Hong Kong came up against in 2018 Asia Cup.

Hong Kong’s match schedule:

31 August 2022 – Hong Kong vs India at Dubai International Stadium -10pm HKT

2 September 2022 – Hong Kong vs Pakistan at Sharjah Cricket Ground – 10pm HKT

Asia Cup fixtures:

https://asiancricket.org/fixtures/

Hong Kong Squad for ACC Asia Cup – UAE 

1. Nizakat Khan (Captain) 

2. Kinchit Shah (Vice – Captain) 

3. Aizaz Khan 

4. Zeeshan Ali 

5. Yasim Murtaza 

6. Haroon Arshad 

7. Ehsan Khan 

8. Ghazanfar Mohammad 

9. Ayush Shukla 

10. Babar Hayat 

11. Aftab Hussain 

12. Scott McKechnie 

13. Ahan Trivedi

14. Wajid Shah

15. Waheed Mohammad

16. Dhananjay Rao

17. Ateeq Iqbal

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The Hong Kong Men’s squad to compete at the Asian Cricket Council Asia Cup Qualifiers Tournament to be held in Oman from the 20^th August – 24^th August 2022 has been named. 

Hong Kong will take on Kuwait, UAE and Singapore in a round-robin tournament with the team finishing in first place progressing to the Asia Cup. The team will travel to Oman directly from Jersey where they have been competing in the final round of ICC Challenge League B.

The winner of the qualifiers will travel directly to the ACC Asia Cup which will take place in the UAE from the 27^th August – 11^th September 2022.

Head Coach Trent Johnston had this to say: 

“The ACC Asia Cup Qualifiers (and Asia Cup) present a great opportunity for us to finish off an intense and long period of overseas tours on a high. I’m incredibly proud of the efforts of all the players and the sacrifices both them and their families have made to be able to tour for such a long period. We’ve got a great group of players that I know are excited by the chance to qualify for the Asia Cup and take on the test playing nations before heading home for a well earned rest.”

Director of Cricket on the CHK Board, Rahul Sharma had this to say: 

“The ACC tournaments are the final leg of a long period of back to back tournaments for this team. The Asia Cup Qualifiers and Asia Cup are great events that the team will be very motivated to do well in. Everyone in Hong Kong is incredibly proud of the teams efforts and wish them every success at the Asia Cup Qualifiers.” 

Captain Nizakat Khan had this to say, 

“We’ve had a tough few months on tour but the prospect of finishing off three months of being on the road with winning the Asia Cup Qualifiers and competing at an Asia Cup is something we are all incredibly excited about. We’ve been together for a long time through the tours and that awareness of each other and our game is something we will be using to our advantage.” 

Hong Kong Squad for ACC Asia Cup Qualifiers – Oman 

1. Nizakat Khan (Captain) 

2. Kinchit Shah (Vice – Captain) 

3. Aizaz Khan 

4. Zeeshan Ali 

5. Yasim Murtaza 

6. Haroon Arshad 

7. Ehsan Khan 

8. Ghazanfar Mohammad 

9. Ayush Shukla 

10. Babar Hayat 

11. Aftab Hussain 

12. Scott McKechnie 

13. Ahan Trivedi

14. Wajid Shah

15. Waheed Mohammad

16. Dhananjay Rao

17. Ateeq Iqbal

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