Pakistan Cricket Board's Director High Performance and member of selection committee Aqib Javed, center, attends a press conference with T20 team captain Salman Ali Agha, right, and head coach Michael Hesson to announce the squad for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, in Lahore, Pakistan. (AP)

ISLAMABAD, Jan 25, (AP): The Pakistan Cricket Board announced its 15-member T20 World Cup squad on Sunday despite still waiting for the go-ahead from its government to participate in next month’s tournament.

PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi threw his support behind Bangladesh, which was replaced by Scotland on Saturday, after the ICC rejected the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s request to shift its World Cup games from India to Sri Lanka over security concerns.

Naqvi, who supported Bangladesh’s stance, accused the ICC of double standards and said he will follow his government’s instructions on whether to participate in the tournament.

"We are selectors, and our job is to pick the team,” Aaqib Javed, a member of the selection committee, told reporters in Lahore. "We’ve announced the team very close to the (ICC) deadline. The government will decide on our participation, so I can say nothing on that front. That’s what the chairman has said, too, so we’ll wait for their decision.”

The ICC has set Jan. 30 as the deadline for all 20 participating nations to submit their final squads.

Pakistan selectors excluded fast bowler Mohammad Wasim from the 16-member squad announced for next week’s three-match T20 series against Australia in Lahore. They also continued to ignore Haris Rauf, who hasn't played since competing in the Asia Cup last September, but kept faith with struggling batter Babar Azam, who scored 202 runs at a strike rate of 103.06 in 11 Big Bash League games while opening the batting for Sydney Sixers.

"We don’t see him opening the batting (at the World Cup),” head coach Mike Hesson said. "He hasn’t opened the batting for us because the ability to attack in the power play is very important.”

Hesson said Babar could come in handy on slow pitches in Sri Lanka, where Pakistan is scheduled to play all its games, including the playoffs if it advances in the tournament, starting Feb. 7.

"He (Babar) certainly has the skill to control the middle overs, if required, and then to feed the strike to certain players,” Hesson said. "If we’re chasing a lower score, he certainly has that ability to control a chase … the conditions in Australia are significantly different than what we’re going to face in Sri Lanka, so we factored all those things in.”

Hesson said the selectors preferred the three fast bowlers - Shaheen Shah Afridi, Salman Mirza, and Naseem Shah - after taking into account their abilities to bowl in all three T20 phases.

With the wickets likely to suit spinners, Pakistan included four spinners: Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Abrar Ahmed, and Usman Tariq.

Pakistan plays its opening Group A match against the Netherlands on Feb. 7, followed by matches against the United States (Feb. 10), India (Feb. 15), and Namibia (Feb. 18).

Squad: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Nafay, Mohammad Nawaz, Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan, Usman Tariq