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Pakistan's ODI captain Mohammad Rizwan is happy with the squad picked for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Rizwan responded to criticism around pace-bowling all-rounder Faheem Ashraf's selection despite his lacklustre record in international cricket.
"Faheem Ashraf was picked, talented cricketer, I wish him best. Lekin phle 20 matches mein unkind bowling average sau ki, batting average nau ki hai [but his batting average is 100 and bowling average is nine in his first 20 matches]," Akram said in a press conference on the sidelines of ILT20 2025.
Rizwan pointed out Ashraf's batting average in List A cricket in last couple of years and termed him the best choice for a pace-bowling all-rounder option.
“Look, the squad that has been announced is in front of everyone, and there’s no such thing that we will make changes to it. We have a match tomorrow, and we have three to four days, but it’s not necessary that we are unhappy with our team or that we need to think about changes,” he said in a press conference.
“If we talk about Faheem Ashraf, if you look at his performance over the last two years in List A cricket, his average is 46. we needed an all-rounder and the best choice for us was Faheem Ashraf,” the wicketkeeper-batter added.
However, despite being the "best choice", Ashraf did not make it to the playing XI of the tri-series opener against Mitchell Santner's New Zealand.
The 31-year-old Ashraf has played 34 ODIs so far and taken 26 wickets at an average of 46.30. He has scored 224 runs from 24 innings at an average of 10.66. He is yet to score a half-century in ODI.
Pakistan's Champions Trophy 2025 squad
Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Agha Salman, Mohammad Rizwan (c), Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi
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