Shehzad last played an international game in June 2018 © Getty

Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal have been handed lifelines again by new head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq as the duo was included in the T20I squad to take on Sri Lanka at home. Apart from Shehzad and Akmal, Faheem Ashraf has also been named in the 16-man squad. The trio has replaced Abid Ali, Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq from the ODI squad with the other 13 retaining their spots.

Imam was left out following an injury he sustained on his left-hand that has also ruled him out of the final ODI on Wednesday (October 2). Shehzad's last international appearance came last year in a T20I in Scotland and he has been out of reckoning ever since. However, the 27-year-old opener had a prolific PSL this year where he ended up scoring 311 runs at an average of 51.83.

Umar Akmal, on the other hand, hasn't played the shortest format for Pakistan since September 2016. He made an ODI comeback earlier this year for the Australia series but was left out again. In the PSL this year, the 29-year-old came up with a few vital knocks and finished the tournament with an average of 34.62 and a strike-rate of 137.12.

Ashraf, who lost his ODI spot recently, had a productive PSL as well earlier this year finishing as the second highest wicket-taker with 21 scalps. All three T20Is have been scheduled to be held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Squad: Sarfaraz Ahmed (C), Babar Azam (VC), Ahmed Shehzad, Asif Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Umar Akmal, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz