Mohammad Amir back in Pakistan's T20 squad

Mohammad Amir's return to Pakistan's squad is complete, as he has been included in the T20I squad for the South Africa series. The fast bowler had been axed from all three formats after the Asia Cup due to poor form, but on the ongoing South Africa tour has returned in both longer formats and now the shortest one too.

The selectors retained the previous T20 squad, which played against New Zealand in the UAE, with the exception of Waqas Maqsood who made way for Amir.

Maqsood played the final match of that T20I series, picking up two for 21, although his victims were lower-order batsmen Lockie Ferguson and Seth Rance, with the fate of the match and series already sealed.

"Once again, the selectors have gone ahead with the policy of maintaining consistency and retaining a winning combination," chief selector Inzamam ul Haq said.

"While our focus is very much on this year's ICC Cricket World Cup, we cannot forget that the ICC T20 World Cup is in Australia in the second half of 2020. So, we need to give as much exposure and experience to our up and coming players as possible, but without compromising on the assignments in hand."

Pakistan are set to play three T20Is starting February 1 in Cape Town, then moving to Johannesburg on February 3 for the second, before finishing the tour with the final T20I in Centurion on February 6. Pakistan are the top-ranked T20I side, having won 17 of their 19 matches last year.

Squad: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Hussain Talat, Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Usman Shinwari, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf
IN: Mohammad Amir
OUT: Waqas Maqsood