Amir, who served a five-year ban and jail time for his involvement in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal, returned to the international arena in the recent away series against New Zealand. The 23-year-old picked up five wickets in the short limited-overs series, which comprised two ODIs and three T20s.
The selectors have also inducted uncapped left-arm pacer Rumman Raees and rookie all-rounder Muhammad Nawaz, besides recalling Test opener Khurrum Manzoor, who has never played in a T20 international for Pakistan.
The sources, in fact, said the selectors had delayed
The
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announcement of the squad for three days as they were uncertain about dropping Shehzad and were also considering wicketkeeper batsman Kamran Akmal.
"There were also some issues with the fitness of tall left arm pacer Muhammad Irfan also," a source said.
Chief selector Haroon Rasheed, in a statement, said that while picking the squad, the team management and skipper Shahid Afridi were consulted.
domestic tournament and on recent Pakistan A team tours.
Nawaz, a left-arm spinner and left-handed batsman, has already snapped up two man of the match awards in the ongoing Pakistan Super League in Dubai.
Interestingly Nawaz, Raees, Manzoor and batsman Babar Azam, who has scored five half centuries in nine ODIs, and middle-order batsman Ifthikar Ahmed have not played in a T20 international for the national team.
Pakistan's former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar said he was upset at the ouster of Umar Gul but admitted that the pacer had been struggling with fitness issues for a while now.
Pakistan reached the final of the World T20 in its inaugural edition in 2007 and won it two years later in England. However, since then, the team has been unimpressive failing to reach the semi-finals of the last edition held in 2014 in Bangladesh.
Pakistan squad: Shahid Afridi (Capt), Khurrum Manzoor, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Babar Azam, Ifthikar Ahmed, Emad Wasim, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir, Muhammad Nawaz, Rumman Raees.