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- Babar has not scored a fifty in his last 18 Test innings and managed just 30 and five in the first Test which England won
- The PCB said it had rested Babar, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Shaheen Shah Afridi so that they could come back afresh
ISLAMABAD: Former captain Babar Azam among four top players has been dropped from Pakistan’s squad for the second Test match against England, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Sunday.
The development comes amid a shake-up in the Pakistan Test team after their innings and 47-run defeat in the first Test against England.
The PCB said it had rested Babar, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Shaheen Shah Afridi so that they could come back afresh.
“Selecting the squad for the upcoming Tests against England has been a challenging task for the selectors. They had to carefully consider current player form, the urgency to bounce back in the series and Pakistan’s demanding 2024-25 international schedule,” the board said in a statement.
“Babar Azam is the best batsman of his generation and the PCB wants a mentally refreshed Babar to represent the Pakistan side in future.”
Babar has not scored a fifty in his last 18 Test innings and managed just 30 and five in the first Test which England won on Friday after piling up 823-7 declared.
The statement came after Pakistan announced a 16-player squad with three uncapped players named for the second Test which begins in Multan on Tuesday.
Spinner Abrar Ahmed has been left out after being taken ill. Abrar was hospitalized after a high fever which forced him to miss the fourth and fifth day of the first Test.
The uncapped Kamran Ghulam, 29, should get the nod to replace Azam at number four in the batting line-up. Two other potential debutants were called up in the shape of wicketkeeper-batsman Haseebullah and left-arm spinner Mehran Mumtaz.
Fast bowler Mohammad Ali and off-spinner Sajid Khan were also included.
Since making his Test debut against the West Indies in Dubai in 2016, Babar has missed only five Tests, two in his first series, one against England at Leeds in 2018 and two in New Zealand in 2020.
The axe fell on Azam, Shaheen and Naseem two days after the PCB reconstituted their selection panel bringing in former pace bowler Aaqib Javed and Azhar Ali along with the incumbent Asad Shafiq.
In a rare move the PCB also included former elite panel umpire Aleem Dar.
After Pakistan’s defeat, skipper Shan Masood and head coach Jason Gillespie backed Babar, saying he just needed time to regain his form.
Babar was once the International Cricket Council’s top-ranked batsman in all three formats, and is still number one in the one-day international rankings.
Since the start of 2023 his form has nosedived. He averages under 21 in his last nine Tests, scoring just 126 in six innings in Australia and 64 in the two home Tests against Bangladesh last month.
Pakistan squad: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel, Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Mehran Mumtaz, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Hurraira, Mohammad Rizwan, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Agha, Zahid Mehmood.
With additional input from AFP.