Babar Azam set to be dropped for second Test against England

October 13, 2024
1:04 pm

Babar Azam will be the biggest name casualty as Pakistan make significant changes to their squad for the second Test, two days after a chastening innings loss to England in Multan. ESPNcricinfo has learned Babar’s dropping was recommended by the newly formed selection committee, which met in Lahore within hours of the loss in the first Test on Friday. They met for a second time on Saturday in Multan, in a session which included chairman Mohsin Naqvi, as well as the five mentors appointed by the PCB on three-year deals.

In the immediate aftermath of the defeat, Pakistan captain Shan Masood publicly backed Babar, calling him “Pakistan’s best batter” and repeating his call to give players more time. That sentiment, for continuity, has been backed by Test coach Jason Gillespie too. Privately, though, it is understood the selection panel collectively felt Babar would benefit from time away from the national side as runs remain elusive; he has not scored a Test half-century since December 2022.

The newly configured selection panel comprises Aaqib Javed, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, former ICC umpire Aleem Dar, analyst Hassan Cheema and the captain and head coach of the format for which the squad is being selected. However, it is understood neither Masood nor Gillespie were part of the selection committee meeting on Friday. Selectors traveled to Multan on Saturday to meet with the captain and coach, as well as the PCB curator Tony Hemming. At the meeting on Saturday, it is believed some of the mentors were in favour of keeping Babar in the squad, but majority opinion was in favour of the dropping.

It is not yet clear whether Babar – who has struggled for form for the best part of two years – will make himself available to play the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, which is scheduled to begin on October 20. Babar has not played a game in that first-class cricket competition since 2019.

The scrutiny around Babar’s form has been magnified with each subsequent failure with the bat. He appeared especially out of sorts against England, on a flat wicket, scoring 35 runs across two innings. beaten on the inside edge in the first innings and the outside in the second. It extended his run without a half-century in Test cricket to 18 innings; just four specialist batters in Pakistan’s history have gone more successive innings without a score in excess of 50. Since the start of 2023, Babar averages under 21in nine Tests.

The loss of form has dovetailed with a turbulent time in terms of his leadership status. Following Pakistan’s elimination at the ODI World Cup in 2023, he reluctantly resigned as captain from all formats. Just four months later, the T20I and ODI captaincy were returned to him, with Shaheen Afridi sacked after just one series.

The second stint was ill-fated. Pakistan won one of three T20I series – against Ireland 2-1 – and were eliminated from the T20 World Cup in 2024 in the first round after defeats to the USA and India. Just six months after he was reappointed, he quit captaincy once more, citing a desire to focus on his batting.

Babar’s omission will not be the only change. Abrar Ahmed, for one, remains in hospital and is extremely unlikely to recover. Selectors are understood to be considering a couple of other spinning options, with Noman Ali and Sajid Khan in contention. There is also a chance that Afridi does not play the second Test as his struggle to return to his pre-knee injury form continues. Afridi has played in two of Pakistan’s last four Tests, and missed one in each of the previous two series.

But it is Babar’s omission that will send shockwaves through Pakistan cricket and its followers. He remains, despite his recent struggles, the biggest name in Pakistan cricket by some distance, having built up an enormous, doting individual fanbase quite separate from the Pakistan team as a whole. Though his ability as captain split opinion and was hotly debated throughout his tenure, there has never – up until very recently – been a debate about his value to the team; even without the armband, he remained an automatic selection and the first name on the team sheet.

While consistency came to Babar more easily in the white-ball formats, he was comfortably among the world’s best Test batters during his prime. Between November 2019 and the end of 2022, he averaged just shy of 62 in 25 Test matches, including eight hundreds and 15 half-centuries. His consistency led to speculation it was only a matter of time before the “Fab Four” quartet became a quintet, with Babar pushing his all-format case.

The second Test against England begins on October 15 in Multan. England won the first Test by an innings and 47 runs to consign Pakistan to a sixth Test defeat on the trot, one that puts them at the bottom of the World Test Championship table.