Asif Afridi, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Saud Shakeel and Usman Qadir, who were all part of the 21-man squad for Pakistan’s previous engagement, against Australia at home in March-April this year, have been excluded from the trimmer 16-man line-up.

The games are slotted for Rawalpindi, but the PCB has kept Multan as a back-up as Islamabad – the country’s capital, adjacent to Rawalpindi – is likely to be the centre for deposed prime minister Imran Khan’s political rally starting May 25. The series is set to start on June 8, and features three ODIs, which are part of the World Cup Super League.

“Usman along with Asif Ali and Haider Ali remain in our plans for the shortest format as we have a series of T20Is lined up this year, including the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022”

Chief selector Mohammad Wasim

The West Indies series will be played without a bio-secure bubble in place, so the PCB has done away with the policy of naming an extended squad. Though there was no bubble in place for the Australia series either, several injury concerns in the squad had forced Pakistan to carry 21 players.

“Taking into consideration that there will be no Managed Event Environment and the players can be called at a short notice, we have reduced the squad size to 16 players,” Wasim said. “For the Australia ODIs, we had also announced backup players as cover to those players who were carrying injuries.

“Players such as Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan are now fully fit, which has allowed us to leave out Asif Afridi and Usman Qadir. However, Usman along with Asif Ali and Haider Ali remain in our plans for the shortest format as we have a series of T20Is lined up this year, including the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022.”

Squad: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan (vice-capt), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jr, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Zahid Mahmood.