Pakistan’s Test and One-Day International (ODI) captain Misbah-ul-Haq will replace Luke Pomersbach of Australia in the St. Lucia Zouks team for the inaugural Limacol Caribbean Premier League (LCPL) T20 Tournament which begins in a matter of days. Pomersbach has been forced to pull out of the tournament on compassionate leave.
Misbah, who has been captaining Pakistan’s ODI side against the West Indies in the Caribbean, will immediately link up with the Zouks squad ahead of the side’s first match – the tournament opener – against the Barbados Tridents at Kensington Oval on Tuesday.
Misbah’s latest Twenty20 action saw him lead the Faisalabad Wolves to victory in Pakistan’s Super Eight T-20 Cup in March and he scored 189 runs at an average of 37.20 during the tournament.
“Although it is unfortunate that Luke Pomersbach will not be joining us, we have a high-quality replacement in Misbah-ul-Haq,” said St Lucia Zouks assistant coach Matthew Maynard about the change to the squad. “He brings with him a vast amount of experience of international cricket, something that will only be of benefit to our younger players, and his latest Twenty20 performance speaks for itself. On top of that he has been in excellent form during the recent ODI series against the West Indies so he is completely acclimatised and match-ready and that is an added plus for us and for him.”
Misbah joins a well-balanced squad with experienced West Indies international players like Darren Sammy and Tino Best, as well as exciting young talents like Andre Fletcher, Nelon Pascal and Dalton Polius and high-quality overseas players Herschelle Gibbs, Albie Morkel and Tamim Iqbal.
“We are excited Misbah is joining us and look forward to working with him as we strive for success in this inaugural Limacol Caribbean Premier League,” added Maynard.
Misbah made his international debut in 2001 and since then has played 39 Tests, 125 ODIs and 39 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).
In those 39 Tests he has scored 2419 runs at 43.19, including three hundreds and 18 fifties. In ODIs he has a total of 3819 runs at 44.40 with 29 fifties, four of those half-centuries coming in the recently-concluded series against the West Indies, and in T20Is he has 788 runs at 37.52 with a strike-rate of 110.20 runs per hundred balls faced.
In each format of the game his statistics improved after taking over the Pakistan captaincy and he has led his country in 20 Tests, 51 ODIs and eight T20Is.
The inaugural Limacol Caribbean Premier League starts on 30 July in Barbados and concludes on 24 August in Trinidad.
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