Pakistan will start the first Test against Bangladesh on Friday without their captain and premier batter after Babar Azam woke up on Thursday with pain in his left knee. Team management confirmed the injury and said the medical panel will “keep monitoring his progress” before making a call on the second Test.
It is the first time Babar has sat out an away Test since January 2021 and the timing is awkward. Only five days ago he dominated the Pakistan Super League, finishing as the tournament’s leading run-scorer while steering Peshawar Zalmi to the title. He flew to Dhaka the morning after that final, trained for two sessions and looked fine, so Thursday’s flare-up caught everyone off-guard.
“Babar experienced discomfort in his left knee this morning and, on medical advice, will not be considered for the Mirpur Test,” a PCB statement read. The board would not be drawn on whether he could yet feature later in the series, adding that the physios would “assess him day by day”.
Without their most established middle-order batter Pakistan have a selection puzzle. Imam-ul-Haq and Shan Masood are inked in at the top, but spots three and four will go to one – and probably both – of uncapped pair Azam Awais and Abdullah Fazal. Another option is to promote wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan or Saud Shakeel and bring seam-bowling all-rounder Amad Butt into the lower order. Either way, somebody gets a debut under pressure.
Former selector Wasim Khan was sympathetic: “You plan a tour around someone like Babar and then the rug is pulled two days before the toss. It happens, but it hurts.”
The series is Pakistan’s first overseas assignment of the current World Test Championship cycle. They sit mid-table after a 1-1 home draw with South Africa, while memories of a 2-0 defeat to Bangladesh in Pakistan three seasons ago still sting. Imam admitted the squad “owe ourselves a better showing”.
Bangladesh, buoyed by home conditions, will sense an opening. Pakistan, meanwhile, must replace 4,000 Test runs at an average a shade under 46 – not the sort of number you magic up overnight, whatever the surface or opposition.
