By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: Pakistan’s cricket selectors reinstated Babar Azam as Test captain on Sunday, naming him to lead the team on upcoming tours of the West Indies and England as the board seeks to arrest a decline in results under his predecessor.
The Pakistan Cricket Board announced the squads at a news conference at the Gaddafi Stadium, with the selection panel fielding questions about the leadership change even as it kept the same selectors in place who had overseen Shan Masood’s tenure.
Pakistan will field a 16-member squad for a two-match Test series in Trinidad and Tobago starting July 25, before a 17-member group travels to England for a three-match series beginning August 19. Batter Saud Shakeel has been included for the England leg only, subject to fitness clearance.
Head coach and selector Aqib Javed said the panel had decided a change was needed despite Masood’s personal form, pointing to results as the deciding factor.
“We have tried to bring about a change so that the team’s results improve,” Javed told reporters, adding that he and fellow selector Asad Shafiq had served on the committee for 18 months, while Misbah-ul-Haq and Sarfaraz Ahmed joined six months ago. Javed said the panel assesses performance separately across formats and that captaincy carries additional responsibility beyond individual batting or bowling returns.
Former captain Misbah-ul-Haq, now a selector, defended the decision to return the captaincy to Azam, saying his batting remains valuable to the side regardless of format.
“Babar Azam can be utilised in all formats. We need to back him with confidence and decide where he can best serve the team,” Misbah said.
Azam had been dropped down Pakistan’s T20 batting order in February during the team’s final group match against Namibia at the T20 World Cup after criticism over his scoring rate. He answered questions about his form in April with a century off 52 balls for Peshawar Zalmi against Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League.
Misbah also moved to reassure players left out of the Test squads, saying their omission should not be read as a signal that their international careers were over. On the pace bowling stocks, he said Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi needed more first-class cricket to sharpen their red-ball game, noting that neither had appeared at his best with the red ball in recent matches. Javed separately flagged the pace of Pakistan’s fast bowlers as an ongoing area of concern for the selectors.
The squads include four uncapped players: left-arm spinner Ali Usman, right-handed batter Muhammad Awais Zafar, fast bowler Ubaid Shah and wicketkeeper-batter Muhammad Ghazi Ghori. All-rounder Aamer Jamal returns to the Test fold for the first time since Pakistan’s series against South Africa in 2025. The pace attack otherwise features Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Ubaid Shah and Khurram Shahzad, while Sajid Khan is the squads’ sole specialist spinner, with Salman Ali Agha available as a part-time option. Left-arm spinner Noman Ali, who missed Pakistan’s most recent Test tour of Bangladesh, has again been left out.
Pakistan’s tour opens with the first Test against the West Indies from July 25-29, followed by the second from August 2-6, both in Trinidad and Tobago. The team then travels to England, opening at Headingley in Leeds on August 19 before matches at Lord’s from August 27 and Edgbaston in Birmingham from September 9.
Squad for West Indies series (16 members, alphabetical order): Babar Azam (capt), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Fazal, Ali Usman, Azan Awais, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Muhammad Awais Zafar, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (wk), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Shan Masood, Ubaid Shah.
Squad for England series (17 members): As above, plus Saud Shakeel (subject to fitness clearance).
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