Less than a week remain for Pakistan's 2023 ODI World Cup warm-up match against New Zealand and Babar Azam's brigade is yet to receive the visas to travel to India. According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, Pakistan are the only team out of the nine sides arriving in India for the quadrennial tournament which is still awaiting visas. Reportedly, Babar's men were set to fly for the UAE early next week before leaving for Hyderabad but with a delay in visas, the pre-World Cup bonding trip has been altered.
The Men in Green are now set to leave for Dubai on Wednesday before departing for Hyderabad from there. While the delay in visas might have altered certain plans of Babar and his team, the one-time World Cup winners are likely to attain the visas before their first warm-up game against New Zealand, scheduled to take place on September 29 (Friday).
The delay in visas only underlines the strenuous political relations between India and Pakistan that have stopped bilateral tours between the arch-rivals.
Talking about Pakistan's warm-up match against the Black Caps in Hyderabad, the Men in Green will play the game without the presence of fans inside the stadium with two religious festivals in the city scheduled around that time.
Meanwhile, Pakistan announced their 15-member ODI World Cup squad and the names included were on the expected lines. The only big development came in the form of Naseem Shah, who will miss the quadrennial tournament with injury. Apart from that, the Men in Green's 15-member squad boasts familiar names who have performed well in the recent past.
Pakistan World Cup squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan (vc), Fakhar Zaman, Imam Ul Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Agha Salman, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Usama Mir, Mohammad Wasim Jr.
Traveling Reserves: Abrar Ahmed, Zaman Khan, Mohammad Haris
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