Pakistan’s discarded opener Imran Farhat will lead the Habib Bank Limited (HBL) team in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Sohail Mazhar, head of HBL sports department announced on Friday.
Imran Farhat, 33, has not featured for Pakistan since 2013. In an unstable international career, Farhat has scored 2,400 runs in 40 Tests and 1,719 runs in 58 ODIs.
Unlike his international career, the Lahore-born left handed opening batsman has been very successful in the domestic circuit. He has amassed a mammoth 12,324 runs in 175 first-class matches, which also includes 29 hundreds.
HBL will be featuring a revamped outfit including eight newly-signed players after the departure of veteran Younis Khan and opener Shan Masood.
Test cricketers Ahmed Shehzad and Asad Shafiq have retained their places, while recently capped Pakistan international Nauman Anwar will also be featuring for HBL.
Pakistan’s T20 captain Shahid Afridi is also a part of the HBL squad as the veteran allrounder looks to regain form in preparation for next year’s World T20 in India.
The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan’s premium domestic tournament, will begin from next month.
HBL has won the trophy twice.
HBL squad:
Imran Farhat (captain), Ahmed Shahzad, Fakhar Zaman, Asad Shafiq, Shahid Afridi, Hassan Raza (Jr), Nauman Anwar, Aftab Khan, Umar Gul, Mohammad Waqas, Shahzaib Ahmed Khan, Asad Shafiq, Ramiz Aziz, Abdul Ameer, Ashiq Ali, Abdur Rehman, Mohammad Naeem, Mohammad Altaf, Jamal Anwar, Ammad Butt and Umair Masood.
