The six Cricket Associations boasting country’s best T20 players lock horns in a dash to the semi-finals of the National T20 in the Lahore-leg matches, which begins on Wednesday.

All six captains look forward to the Lahore-leg matches as excitement grows; Babar Azam leads the batting table, while Shaheen Afridi heads the bowlers chart

Balochistan to play Northern in the opening match at 3pm, defending champions Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to take on Central Punjab in second match from 7:30 pm at Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi

Pindi will host the event in the first phase from September 23 to October 3 whereas Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium will host the second phase from October 6 to 12.

The announcement means 10 players in A+ category will now receive a monthly retainer of PKR250,000 each, followed by PKR185,000 each for the 40 cricketers in Category A, PKR175,000 each for 40 players in Category B, PKR165,000 each for the 64 players in Category C and PKR140,000 each for the 37 players in category D.

The seven home T20Is in Lahore and Rawalpindi will be played from 25 September to 14 October, while Pakistan will proceed to take on India in a battle of former champions in their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup opener in Dubai on 24 October.

15-player squad includes five batters, two wicketkeeper-batters, four all-rounders and four fast bowlers; Fakhar Zaman, Usman Qadir and Shahnawaz Dahani named as traveling reserves

Each Cricket Association squad comprises 40 players – 32 of which will be awarded domestic contracts, to be announced in due course – along with 10 additional players.

Local player representation in Balochistan’s squad increased to 55pc

A pre-season training camp for men’s white-ball players will commence on Sunday at the National High Performance Centre with practice matches to be played at the Gaddafi Stadium