Pakistan have dropped their former Test captain Shan Masood, opener Abdullah Shafique and both of their frontline spinners from the 14-man squad named on Saturday for next month’s two-Test series against Sri Lanka.
Babar Azam retains the captaincy of what Dawn described as a revamped side, with selectors turning to youth and domestic run-scorers. The spin pair of Sajid Khan and Noman Ali are also out, the ICC reported. Pakistan’s spin will instead come from Arafat Minhas and left-arm spinner Ali Usman.
The squad
Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Abbas, Salman Ali Agha, Azan Awais, Saad Baig (wk), Abdullah Fazal, Mohammad Ghazi Ghori (wk), Razaullah, Arafat Minhas, Sameer Minhas, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Suleman, Mohammad Taha, Ali Usman.
Mohammad Taha, Mohammad Suleman and Sameer Minhas have their first Test call-ups. Taha, a 26-year-old left-hander, leads the President’s Trophy Grade-I run charts with 730 runs in seven matches since September, including three centuries and a highest score of 225. Suleman is fifth with 652 runs and three centuries. Sameer, in his maiden first-class season, has 405 runs in seven matches after impressing for Pakistan’s Under-19 side.
Two fast bowlers will be added from a 13-member PCB Patron’s XI, which plays Sri Lanka in a three-day warm-up at the Islamabad Club from 4 to 6 November under Saad Baig.
What the omissions cost
Masood’s exclusion is the sharpest break. He made 109 against the West Indies at Port of Spain in July before a finger injury, then managed 161 runs in six innings across the England series — 29 and five at Leeds, 26 and one at Lord’s, 95 and five at Edgbaston. He has 2,926 runs in 50 Tests at 30.80, with seven centuries and 15 half-centuries. Shafique scored an unbeaten 160 in that same Port of Spain Test but made only 84 runs in six innings in England.
The series matters to both sides. It falls in the ICC World Test Championship 2025–27 cycle, where Pakistan sit bottom of the table and Sri Lanka seventh.
The first Test is at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium from 9 to 13 November, the second at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore from 17 to 21 November. Sri Lanka named a 15-man squad under Kusal Mendis on 13 October, with Pathum Nissanka travelling only if passed fit.
Ada Derana has reported the squad, but its pages have been unreachable from this desk for several weeks and the filing could not be dated, so it is not cited here. No other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had filed at the time of writing.
