Pakistan's plans for the T20 World Cup 2026 has been leaked in a deleted whatsapp message in the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) media group consisting journalists across the globe. The incident took place on Friday, when a member of the PCB media team revealed their T20 World Cup 2026 plans along with an update on pacer Mohammad Wasim Jnr.
According to a report on RevSportz, the PCB media team posted a media release on the whatsapp group at 8:49 PM. It read, “Update on Pakistan T20I Squad. Fast bowler Mohammad Wasim Jnr has been released from Pakistan's T20I squad for the remaining two matches of the series against Australia. Pakistan will compete the series with the 15-member squad that will travel onwards for the ICC Cricket World Cup.”
Two minutes later at 8:51 PM, the PCB media team deleted the release and posted an updated version which read “Update on Pakistan T20I Squad. Fast bowler Mohammad Wasim Jnr has been released from Pakistan's T20I squad for the remaining two matches of the series against Australia.”
Earlier, the lack of clarity on Pakistan's travel for the T20 World Cup 2026 has kept everyone guessing. Having shown solidarity to Bangladesh's decision to travel not to India for the mega event, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi had stated that a final call on their participation will be taken by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Soon after, Pakistan announced their 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup 2026 in Lahore with captain Salman Ali Agha, head coach Mike Hesson and Director High Performance and member of selection committee Aqib Javed meeting the press.
Due to the strained political relations between India and Pakistan, neither of the team plays any cricket match on each other's soil. It must be noted that Pakistan will play all their T20 World Cup 2026 matches in Sri Lanka after the PCB and BCCI signed an agreement to play at neutral venues till 2027 in all ICC and Asian Cricket Council events.
Although there were reports that Pakistan might boycott the India clash on February 15 in Colombo, but that is unlikely to happen as it would have a severe impact on Pakistan cricket financially.
Pakistan's T20 World Cup 2026 squad
Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Mohammad Nafay, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan, Usman Tariq
