LAHORE: Right-arm fast bowler Mohammad Wasim Jr has been dropped from the Pakistan squad for the three-match home series against Australia, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Friday.
The cricket board announced the 24-year-old’s release in a brief statement, which did not include the reasoning behind the decision.
“Fast bowler Mohammad Wasim Jr has been released from Pakistan’s T20I squad for the remaining two matches of the series against Australia,” the PCB said.
Wasim Jr was part of the Pakistan squad that toured Sri Lanka for the three-match T20I series earlier this month and was the tour side’s leading wicket-taker with five wickets at an impressive average of 12.20 in the two matches.
However, he failed to make the Pakistan squad for the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup scheduled to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka from February 7 to March 8, which may account for his exclusion from the series, which the Green Shirts lead 1-0.
Also, Wasim Jr was not selected in Pakistan’s playing XI for the T20I series opener against Australia on Thursday, which the home side won by 22 runs thanks to Saim Ayub’s all-round brilliance.
Pakistan squad updated for Australia T20I: Salman Ali Agha (catch), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Faqar Zaman, Khawaja Mohammad Nafe (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shahman Afridi, Usman Khan.