The Pakistan cricket team, which is trying to recover from the humiliating defeat in the Test series against Bangladesh at home, now has a new challenge in front of it. The England team is coming to Pakistan for a Test series next month and the Pakistan team has been announced for the first match of this series. Despite facing a clean sweep against Bangladesh, the captaincy of the Pakistan team is still in the hands of Shan Masood, while star players like Babar Azam and Shaheen Shah Afridi, who failed miserably in the last series, have been retained.

The Pakistan Cricket Board on Tuesday announced a 15-member squad for the first Test match to be played in Multan on 24 September. The first Test of the series will start on 7 October. Almost all the players selected in the Test team are currently playing for different teams in the Champions One Day Cup tournament, but after the advice of Test team coach Jason Gillespie, the board has decided to give rest to all these players from the remaining matches, so that they remain fresh for the first match of the series.

Star players selected despite failure

A connection camp had started a day earlier between the players of the Pakistani team, PCB officials and coaching staff in Faisalabad, in which important issues like lack of unity in the team were discussed. A day after this, the board announced the squad for the Multan Test. Most of the players are the same who were part of the series against Bangladesh, including names like Babar, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Abdullah Shafiq, who failed miserably in that series.

However, fast bowler Khurram Shahzad has been ruled out due to injury and in his place spinner Noman Ali, who has played 15 Test matches, has returned to the team. At the same time, batsman Mohammad Huraira has also been included in the squad again but it is unlikely that he will get a chance to make his Test debut.

taken out without feeding

On the other hand, experienced batsman Kamran Ghulam, who was part of the squad against Bangladesh, has been dropped from the team. Kamran was not given a chance in any match of the series but he was dropped without checking his performance. Kamran Ghulam currently has 248 runs in the Champions ODI Cup and is at number two. This three-match Test series will be played in Multan and Rawalpindi only. The first and second Tests will be held in Multan, while the last Test will be played in Rawalpindi, where the Pakistani team had to face defeat from Bangladesh.

Pakistan Squad

Shan Masood (captain), Saim Ayub, Saud Shakeel, Babar Azam, Abdullah Shafiq, Aamir Jamal, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Salman Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi