LAHORE: After the two T2O Internationals, Gaddafi stadium will be hosting One-Day International (ODI) three-match series between Pakistan and Zimbabwe from Tuesday.
Pakistan have recalled former captain Shoaib Malik, Ahmed Shehzad, Anwar Ali, Hammad Azam and paceman Muhammad Sami in the 16-men one-day squad for this series.
Ammad Wasim has succeeded to get a chance to show his performance to the selectors against Sri Lanka-A, while Malik's inclusion will boost Pakistan batting, which struggled to put up a fight against Bangladeshi bowlers in their last series. Also Sami's experience will be handy for the hosts, especially while bowling in death overs.
Apart from Malik, opener Ahmed Shahzad will also make a comeback, while the selectors also decided to test out uncapped batsman Babar Azam and recalled all-rounders, Hammad Azam and Anwar Ali. There was no place for hard hitting opener Mukhtar Ahmed who scored 87 and 65 in the T20 matches against the Zimbabweans, and won back-to-back man-of-the-match awards and man-of-the-series awards.
Selectors also dropped Fawad Alam, all-rounder Saad Nasim, young opener Sami Aslam and spinner Zulfiqar Babar from the ODI team.
For Zimbabwe the batting has shaped up really well on this tour. Especially players like Hamilton Masakadza, Elton Chigumbura, Sean Williams have batted really well in the T20s.Their main problem is bowling. They failed to defend 170 plus scores twice in the T20 series. So in the ODIs they would look to chase the runs down.
Though Pakistan won the T20I series 2-0, but Zimbabwe were very competitive as both matches finished in the last over. Pakistan will start as favourites in the one-dayers, but the visitors have the potential to upset them.
Before this, Pakistan faced Zimbabwe in 48 ODIs in which the green shirts beat guests in 45 matches while three were lost, one was tie and one could not provide any result.
And on Pakistani grounds hosts played 15 matches against the guests and only lost once.
Azhar Ali will lead the green shirts for the first time against Zimbabwe. Earlier, Wasim Akram, Waqar Yunas, Shoaib Malik, Moeen Khan, Rashid Latif, Amir Sohail, Imran Khan, Inzimam-ul- Haq and Muhammad Yusaf have led the team in ODIs in the country.
All the three matches would be played in flood lights in Gaddafi Stadium, the sole venue for the entire tour of Zimbabwe.
The capacity of Qaddafi Stadium is over 27,000 and it has hosted the 1996 World Cup final won by Sri Lanka.
Zimbabwean squad includes Elton Chigumbura (Captain), Chamu Chibhabha, Charles Coventry, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Roy Kaia, Hamilton Masakadza, Chris Mpofu, Tawanda Mupariwa, Richmond Mutumbami, Tinashe Panyangara, Vusi Sibanda, Sikandar Raza, Prosper Utseya, Brian Vitori and Sean Williams.
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