Afridi retirement imminent: reports

Pakistan great Shahid Afridi is reportedly expected to announce his retirement from international cricket and be given a farewell match against the West Indies later this month.

Afridi, in his 20th year of international cricket, hasn't been named in Pakistan's 15-man squad for the three-match T20 series against the Windies on September 23-27 having also missed their one-off T20 against England last week.

But The Express Tribune and The Daily Jang are both reporting that Afridi will announce his international retirement and then be added to the T20 squad for a farewell against the Windies.

The Tribune is reporting that a member of the national selection committee says Afridi asked the Pakistan Cricket Board for a farewell match, with the final decision to be rubber-stamped by PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan.

The Daily Jang says the PCB and selectors, reluctant to pick the 36-year-old Afridi as they look ahead to the 2018 ICC World T20, asked the veteran to announce his retirement.

"The plan is to talk to Afridi and explain to him that since the selectors are now building a new T20 squad for the next World T20 there is no place for him," an unnamed PCB source said.

"He will be offered the chance to be included in the Pakistan squad for the T20 series against the West Indies as 16th player and play in the matches.

“The PCB also wants to organise a grand farewell for him in Dubai during the T20 series for which the selectors have already announced a 15-member squad."

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Afridi has been capped more than 500 times for his country, the last of which came at the ICC World T20 in March.

He is expected to continue playing in domestic leagues around the world.

Last week, Pakistan announced the recall of middle-order batsman Umar Akmal for the Twenty20 series against the West Indies, which will be followed by a three-match one-day international series as well as three Tests.

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Akmal was dropped from the recent limited-overs series against England on disciplinary grounds but forced his way back into the national team after scoring 304 runs in five matches during the ongoing National T20 Cup with a strike rate of 202.66.

Selectors also recalled allrounder Saad Nasim, who last played a T20 two years ago against New Zealand in the United Arab Emirates.

The T20 side will be led by Sarfraz Ahmed, who took over the captaincy from Afridi after the World T20 and won his first match in charge against England in Manchester.

Dubai will host back-to-back T20s on September 23 and 24, and the third T20 will be on September 27 in Abu Dhabi.

Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Saad Nasim, Rumman Raees