PCB Announces New Tournament; Squads And Fixtures Revealed

Pakistan team [Source: AFP]

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced complete squads of the upcoming inaugural edition of National Champions Cup. The board also unveiled the entire schedule of the week-long tournament.

It is worth noting that the PCB devised the National Champions Cup this year in a bid to give more playing opportunities to white-ball talents before the 2027 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in South Africa and Zimbabwe. 

PCB reveals schedule, Multan to host entire tournament

On Monday, July 27, the PCB unveiled the entire schedule of the 2026 National Champions Cup. The board confirmed that the 50-overs List A tournament will be played between August 11 and August 18, and all matches will be hosted by the iconic Multan Cricket Stadium in Multan. 

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As many as four teams will be participating in the week-long event, and each team is scheduled to face each other once in a six-match round-robin format. The top two teams at the end of the opening round will qualify for the final. 

All seven matches will also have a start time of 3:00 PM onwards in Pakistan. Here is a look at the entire schedule of the National Champions Cup 2026 season.

National Champions Cup 2026 schedule

PCB list squads; Shaheen Afridi, Sahibzada Farhan among captains

The PCB also named one Pakistan international star each as captain of the four competing sides. Experienced fast bowler and Pakistan ODI captain Shaheen Afridi was named captain of the Pakistan Gold team. 

Explosive openers Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan will be leading the Pakistan Whites and Pakistan Blues teams respectively. Seasoned all-rounder Shadab Khan was appointed as captain of Pakistan Greens. 

Interestingly, the PCB named only a 13-player squad for each team, apart from listing a common 12-player ‘reserve pool’ for the entire tournament. Each team can pick a player from the pool in case of an injury or a concussion. Here is a look at all squads for the 2026 Pakistan National Champions Cup.

Pakistan Greens: Shadab Khan (captain), Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Farhan Yousuf, Mehran Mumtaz, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Omair Bin Yousuf, Saad Baig (wicket-keeper) and Sameer Minhas.

Pakistan Whites: Saim Ayub (captain), Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Haris Rauf, Hasan Nawaz, Khushdil Shah, Mohsin Riaz, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Saad Masood, Shahzaib Khan and Usman Khan (wicket-keeper).

Pakistan Blues: Sahibzada Farhan (captain), Ahmed Daniyal, Arafat Minhas, Hasan Ali, Hussain Talat, Jahandad Khan, Rohail Nazir (wicket-keeper), Shamyl Hussain, Sufyan Moqim, Taimur Khan (wicket-keeper) and Tayyab Tahir.

Pakistan Gold: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Abdul Samad, Abdul Subhan, Faisal Akram, Haider Ali, Kamran Ghulam, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Nawaz, Muhammad Akhlaq (wicket-keeper), Muhammad Imran and Saad Khan.

Reserve Pool: 

Batters - Mohammad Suleman, Mohammad Faiq, Muhammad Irfan Khan

All-rounders – Mubasir Khan, Danish Aziz

Pacers – Arshad Iqbal, Muhammad Salman, Razaullah, Saqib Khan, Mohammad Amir Khan, Shahnawaz Dahani

Wicket-keeper – Haseebullah  

National Champions Cup to gauge World Cup 2027 options for PCB

The National Champions Cup was devised by the PCB in a bid to gauge 2027 ICC World Cup options. The tournament will also increase preparation opportunities for some of Pakistan’s best 50-overs players in the country. 

Aqib Javed, Director High Performance and member men’s national selection committee, said “We have arranged this high-profile 50-over competition to provide ample playing opportunities to our best available pool of players for ICC Cricket World Cup 2027 preparations. The teams have been assembled keeping in mind the roles of the players in the 50-over game. I wish the best of luck to all the teams and look forward to watch some highly-competitive contests in Multan.”

The 2026 National Champions Cup also marks the beginning of the 2026-27 domestic season in Pakistan. 

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