CPL 2018: Shoaib Malik set to captain Guyana Amazon Warriors

Senior Pakistan batsman Shoaib Malik has been named the captain of Guyana Amazon Warriors for the upcoming edition of the Caribbean Premier League. The seasoned right-hander, who is one of the four marquee players in the tournament, will lead a strong contingent for the 2018 season.

Guyana Amazon Warriors had retained Sohail Tanvir following his successful stint in the 2017 CPL season. Aside from Malik himself, the other prominent overseas players in the squad are Luke Ronchi, Cameron Delport and Imran Tahir.

Spanning across five seasons and 39 games, Malik represented Barbados Tridents during his CPL stint thus far. In last year's edition, he played under the captaincy of Kieron Pollard and scored 121 runs from five matches.

Malik, who recently became the first player to complete 100 T20I appearances, is enjoying a prolific run with a rejuvenated Pakistan team. Since making his T20 debut in 2005, he has played for as many as 16 different teams in the shortest format of the game. The veteran right-hander's career tally of 7974 runs is the fourth highest in all T20s.

The 2018 CPL season will begin on August 8 and will run until September 17. Guyana Amazon Warriors will start their campaign with a home clash on August 9 against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. While Pakistan are yet to confirm their schedule for the next few months, it is understood that Malik should be available for all CPL matches.

A delighted Malik stated, "Over the last few seasons, I really enjoyed my time with the Hero CPL as a player with the Barbados Tridents and now I look forward with great pride to captain the Guyana Amazon Warriors in this year’s tournament. The Amazon Warriors have really done well over the years and I hope that being part of a really impressive team means we will challenging for the title at the end of the season."

Guyana Amazon Warriors head coach Johan Botha affirmed, "It’s great to have the experience of Shoaib leading us this year. He is a very calm leader which will be great in pressure situations on the field. I worked with him earlier this year in the Pakistan Super League so we come into the CPL and the Guyana Amazon Warriors team with a good working relationship and understanding of each other."

Guyana Amazon Warriors Squad: Shoaib Malik (c), Sohail Tanvir, Chadwick Walton (wk), Cameron Delport, Rayad Emrit, Imran Tahir, Jason Mohammed, Luke Ronchi (wk), Veerasammy Permaul, Roshon Primus, Shimron Hetmyer, Devendra Bishoo, Gajanand Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Keemo Paul, Saurabh Netravalkar and Akshaya Persaud