Babar Azam will wear Pakistan’s T20I colours again next month, ending an absence that stretches back to the close of the last Pakistan Super League. The selectors have named him in a 15-strong squad for three T20s against South Africa at home and the triangular event with Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe that follows in Harare. He also returns to the one-day set-up, meaning he is once more an all-format player.
Mohammad Rizwan, recently relieved of the 50-over captaincy, keeps his place as wicketkeeper-batter in the ODI group. Shaheen Shah Afridi takes over the leadership for that three-match series against South Africa, his first stint as Pakistan’s official 50-over captain.
Key ins and outs
• Babar Azam back in both white-ball squads
• Naseem Shah retained for ODIs and recalled to T20Is
• CPL stand-out Usman Tariq earns a first-time T20 call-up
• Hasan Ali left out altogether; Hussain Talat drops from T20Is
Why the sudden recall?
Back in the summer, white-ball coach Mike Hesson said Babar would need to “improve a few things” before reclaiming a T20 spot, hinting that a December Big Bash stint might act as his trial. That plan has clearly shifted. Nobody at the Pakistan Cricket Board has offered a detailed explanation yet, though those close to the set-up point to Babar’s training block at Lahore’s High-Performance Centre and good nets against the red ball as signals he has tinkered successfully with his power-game.
Naseem Shah – fresh from a productive CPL spell with St Kitts & Nevis Patriots – returns to the T20 fold as well. The speedster’s rhythm looked smooth in the Caribbean, and the selectors have decided not to wait. Off-spinner Usman Tariq, second on the wicket list for champions Trinbago Knight Riders, is another CPL beneficiary.
Hasan Ali, part of Pakistan’s most recent T20 Asia Cup campaign, does not feature in either squad. His form has tailed off and the selectors went for younger quicks. Middle-order all-rounder Hussain Talat also slips out of the T20 plans for now.
Schedule at a glance
3 T20Is v South Africa: 3, 5, 7 November – Rawalpindi
3 ODIs v South Africa: 10, 12, 14 November – Karachi
Tri-series (with Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe): 17-29 November – Harare
Squads
ODI (captain Shaheen Shah Afridi): Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Faisal Akram, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah (wk), Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha.
T20I (captain Salman Ali Agha): Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan (wk), Usman Tariq.
What the numbers say
Babar’s last ten T20 innings: 15, 58, 50, 9, 30, 27, 3, 73, 1, 38 – hardly catastrophic, but the strike-rate of 122 hovered below modern top-order expectations. Domestically he has been working on accessing the leg-side pockets earlier in the innings; net observers report more back-foot punch than before.
Tariq offers something different
At 29, Usman Tariq is not strictly a youngster, yet his drift and subtle arm-ball at the CPL impressed. Pakistan have defaulted to finger-spin that darts in; Tariq’s ability to hold and then beat the outside edge could be useful on Zimbabwe’s drier pitches later in the month.
Leadership shuffle
With Shaheen handling the ODIs and Salman Ali Agha stepping into the T20 job, Pakistan continue to separate formats. Insiders insist this is not a slight on Rizwan, more a spreading of workload. Shaheen, speaking informally after a domestic one-dayer in Lahore, said leading the national ODI side is “a big responsibility and, yes, a dream”, though he knows “results matter more than armbands”.
Selection panel’s gamble
Leaving out Hasan Ali strips the attack of experience, but the selectors argue form must drive decisions. A member of the panel noted privately that Hasan’s economy across the last 20 T20 internationals sits at 9.4; they want that closer to eight.
Room for late change
The PCB has left a small caveat, saying form in the National T20 Cup could still push fringe players into the tri-series squad. That tournament overlaps with the training camp in Karachi, so the coaching staff will keep a travelling eye on performances.
Looking ahead
Pakistan’s white-ball calendar is stacked – South Africa at home, the Harare tri-series away, then Australia for the Boxing Day Test block. Rest and rotation will have to be managed smartly. For now, though, the headline is simple: Babar is back, Shaheen has the captaincy in one format, and a couple of faces fresh from Caribbean success have been thrown their first green caps.
