The expected announcement came late last night through a press release from the PCB, which said that the changes were necessitated due to injuries to batsman Azam and pace bowler Raees.

“After having looked at the performance of the players in the PSL, the selection committee along with captain Shahid Afridi and head coach Waqar Younis decided to include Sharjeel Khan and Mohammad Sami as replacements for injured Babar Azam and Ruman Raees respectively for both Asia Cup and World Cup,” Pakistan chief selector Haroon Rasheed said in a statement.

Khalid Latif, who hit form recently and piled 190 runs in eight PSL matches so far, has been picked up for World T20 in India.