Babar Azam Axed, Shaheen Afridi OUT, Star Player To Make A Comeback? Pakistan's Likely Squad For England Tests

Babar Azam Axed, Shaheen Afridi OUT, Star Player To Make A Comeback? Pakistan's Likely Squad For England Tests (Source: AP)

Pakistan suffered massive embarrassment after a humiliating 2-0 defeat to Bangladesh at home. The team has seen a steady decline over the last couple of years that saw them perform poorly at the ODI World Cup 2023 and T20 World Cup 2024. The team was expected to do well in the home series against Bangladesh but was completely outplayed. Pakistan will next take on England in a three-match series and they would desperately want to turn things around. It won't be easy though as England thrashed Pakistan 3-0 when they last toured the country.

PCB Chief Mohsin Naqvi talked about surgery to the Pakistan team given their consistent low returns and a glimpse of it was visible when they left out Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah from the second Test against Bangladesh. The series of defeats could force Pakistan to take tough calls. There has been a lot of questions about the form of Babar Azam and speculations are rife that Babar could be dropped from the test squad for England series, however, given he is one of the key players of the side, it is unlikely PCB would drop him for such an important series.

Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah, or one of them, however, could be axed given their poor performance. The good outing by Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali, and Mir Hamza could make the call easier for selectors. Also, Aamer Jamal should be fit and available for selection. Sarfaraz Ahmed hasn't got many opportunities but Pakistan have a dearth of good wicketkeeper so he should retain his place as backup keeper, but it is unlikely he will get a shot in XI. The batting more or less should stay the same, given that Pakistan don't have many options available at the moment for Test cricket. The series gets underway on October 7.

Meanwhile, England have already announced the squad for the Test series and Ben Stokes made a comeback to the side after missing the Sri Lanka Tests due to injury.

Pakistan Likely Squad: Shan Masood (c), Saud Shakeel (vc), Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Aamer Jamal

England Squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Josh Hull, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.

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