Batsmen Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad have been dropped to category D, the lowest level of contracts (1:22)

Batsmen Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad have been dropped to category D, the lowest level of contracts, by the PCB while Shahid Afridi, Junaid Khan and Fawad Alam were cut from the contracted list of players altogether. Legspinner Yasir Shah and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed have been awarded category-A contracts.

The PCB announced on Thursday the list of 30 players given contracts valid from October 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. The following are the major changes to the list from the previous year:

Category A: Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah

Category B: Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Amir

Category C: Haris Sohail, Mohammad Rizwan, Imran Khan, Shan Masood, Mohammad Irfan, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Khalid Latif, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir

Category D: Anwar Ali, Zulfiqar Babar, Mohammad Asghar, Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal