Allrounder Hussain Talat and Sarfaraz Ahmed have returned to Pakistan's T20I squad for the upcoming series against New Zealand, starting December 18 in Auckland. The duo replaced Zafar Gohar and Rohail Nazir who were part of the T20I squad against Zimbabwe. The 18-man squad will depart for Queenstown on December 8 after completing the 14-day isolation in Christchurch, to play the T20Is on December 18, 20 and 22.

Ahmed had been left out of the Zimbabwe series to give youngsters a chance and give Ahmed an opportunity to play first-class cricket to "retain his fitness" and "rediscover" his form. He played three games in the Quiad-e-Azam Trophy for Sindh and scored an unbeaten century against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Overall, he scored 177 runs from six innings with an average of just over 35.

Talat last played international cricket in February 2019 on the South Africa tour and recently scored a career-best double-century and a century within five innings in the Quiad-e-Azam Trophy. Before that, he also racked up 319 runs in the National T20 Cup in October at a strike rate of nearly 152 with three half-centuries.

T20I squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Faheem Ashraf, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hussain Talat, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Musa Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Qadir and Wahab Riaz.

More to follow...