{"id":5505,"date":"2026-09-01T04:10:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T04:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/?p=5505"},"modified":"2026-09-01T04:10:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T04:10:32","slug":"pakistan-make-major-shake-up-in-test-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/?p=5505","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan make major shake-up in Test squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan have overhauled their Test squad ahead of the third and final match against England in Birmingham, releasing seven players following the completion of the Lord\u2019s Test and bringing in a mix of established names and uncapped talent.<\/p>\n<p>The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Monday that Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Aamir Jamal, Muhammad Awais Zafar and Khurram Shahzad had been released from the squad after the second Test.<\/p>\n<p>Seven replacements have been named, including five players yet to make their Test debuts and two who have already represented Pakistan in the format.<\/p>\n<p>Senior batsman Saim Ayub returns to the Test squad after having played eight Tests for Pakistan, while Abdullah Fazal, another batter, comes in with two Tests to his name.<\/p>\n<p>Left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder Arafat Minhas has also been added to the squad. Minhas has represented Pakistan in three one-day internationals and four Twenty20 internationals but is yet to play a Test.<\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-story-2\" data-google-query-id=\"CLrfxLPBzJYDFfzFDQkds7QU0Q\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/11952262\/tribune-sports-story-2_0__container__\"><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/11952262\/tribune-sports-story-2_0\" tabindex=\"0\" title=\"3rd party ad content\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/11952262\/tribune-sports-story-2_0\" width=\"728\" height=\"97\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Advertisement\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-google-container-id=\"5\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The four uncapped players at Test level are left-arm fast bowler Mohammad Imran Junior, wicket-keeper-batter Saad Baig, and right-arm pace-bowling all-rounders Mohammad Imran, also known as Imran Randhawa, and Razaullah.<\/p>\n<p>Baig&#8217;s selection comes after a standout domestic season. The wicket-keeper batsman was named player of the tournament in the 2025-2026 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan&#8217;s premier first-class competition.<\/p>\n<p>The changes come with Pakistan preparing for the Birmingham Test, where they will seek to finish with consolation win against England after losing the opening two matches.<\/p>\n<p>The PCB has also made changes to the team&#8217;s support staff, releasing former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul.<\/p>\n<p>They will be replaced by Mike Hesson and Ashley Noffke, respectively, as Pakistan seek to strengthen their coaching setup for the decisive Test.<\/p>\n<p>The updated squad for the Birmingham Test is: Babar Azam (captain), Abdullah Fazal, Abdullah Shafique, Arafat Minhas, Azan Awais, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Imran, Mohammad Imran Junior, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (wicket-keeper), Razaullah, Saad Baig (wicket-keeper), Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood and Ubaid Shah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan have overhauled their Test squad ahead of the third and final match against England in Birmingham, releasing seven players following the completion of the Lord\u2019s Test and bringing in a mix of established names and uncapped talent. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Monday that Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5507,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5505\/revisions\/5507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}