Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that batsman Ahmed Shehzad has been banned for four months over a failed drug test. The board stated Shehzad had pleaded guilty to violating anti-doping rules.

The PCB handed out the punishment after the 26-year-old tested positive for a “prohibited substance” during the domestic Pakistan Cup earlier this year.

“Shehzad has been banned for four months effective from 10th July 2018… for violating the board’s anti-doping rules,” the PCB said in a statement.

“He accepts that he has violated PCB’s rules, but had no intention to cheat or enhance his performance,” the statement added.

The board did not identify the substance which resulted in Shehzad’s failed dope test.

“I inadvertently consumed a medicine which as an experienced cricketer I should have refrained from,” Shehzad said on Twitter after the decision was announced.

“This is a lesson for me… and I hope to make a strong comeback from here.”

The right-handed opener had been suspended in July over the failed test and will now have to deliver anti-doping lectures “as a part of his rehabilitation process”, the PCB said.

Shehzad has played 13 Tests, 81 ODIs and 57 T20s for Pakistan but has faded into the background. His last appearance for Pakistan was in a T20 against Scotland in June.