Pakistan batsman Ahmed Shehzad has been banned for four months for violating anti-doping regulations, after testing positive for a prohibited substance.

The 26-year-old has played 13 Tests, 81 ODIs and 57 T20s and was tested in May at the Pakistan Cup domestic event.

He was suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board in July and his four-month ban is effective from 10 July, reports the BBC.

Shehzad played for Pakistan in June’s T20 series in Scotland, where he made a combined 38 runs as in successive wins.

The PCB said Shehzad accepted that he committed the violations but had no intention to cheat or enhance his performance.

‘PCB has a zero tolerance policy towards doping in cricket and hopes that in future cricketers will exercise utmost care to ensure that no prohibited substances enter their system,’ PCB chairman Ehsan Mani said.

The statement did not specify the substance for which Shehzad had tested positive, but as part of his rehabilitation process, he will also have to deliver lectures on anti-doping.

Since making his Test debut in 2013, Shehzad has scored 983 runs in his 13 matches, the last of which ended in May 2017.