Published in Bol News on Oct 10th, 2020, Gulmeena Hamid
38 year old, experienced designated hitter Shoaib Malik is the first Pakistani batsman to score 10,000 runs in T20 cricket.
This masterstroke was accomplished against Balochistan during the National T20 Cup in Rawalpindi while he played for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Shoaib Malik has played 394 T20 matches in the past fifteen years, recording 10027 runs at an average of 37+. Although he is yet to list a hundred in this format, the batsman has scored 61 fifties.
He is now also a part of the elite list which includes Chris Gayle (13296) and Keiron Pollard (10370) of West Indies.
On the other hand, many senior players including Imran Farhat and Rahat Ali were dropped for poor performance in the National T20 Cup.
According to the details, opening batsman Imran Farhat was dropped from the Balochistan team due to poor performance. Abdul Wahid Bangalzai has been included in the squad in his place.
Southern Punjab team was dropped Bilawal Bhatti, Mohammad Irfan, and Rahat Ali. Dilbar Hussain, Mohammad Imran, and Zain Abbas had been included in the squad in their place.
The head coach of Central Punjab had also decided to make a change in the First XI squad. Off-spinner Bilal Asif was replaced by second-order top-order batsman Mohammad Akhlaq.