Ben Stokes’ one-sentence reaction to Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah’s exclusion ends discussion

Both England and Pakistan have declared their playing elevens for the second Test. England captain Ben Stokes returns to the side, having missed out the first Test due to injury. In his interaction with the media, Stokes was asked for his thoughts on Pakistan being without arguably their three most prominent players for the remainder of the series. “That’s Pakistan cricket’s issue, nothing to do with me,” said Stokes.

‘Rested’ not ‘dropped’

Pakistan assistant coach Azhar Mahmood told the media that the trio have in fact been only “rested” and not “dropped”. Mahmood said that the managememt wants to ensure that three players remain fit for the upcoming white-ball matches that Pakistan are scheduled to play. “Babar is our No. 1 player in terms if technique and ability,” he said. “Pakistan has so much cricket coming that the selection committee decided to give Babar a rest, because Pakistan have to go to Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

“We need to take advantage of our conditions. We announced the team for one Test match because we knew we would have changes. After this we’re flying to Australia to play white-ball cricket. We knew we’d have to rest Shaheen and other important players because we have non-stop cricket for the next six months.”

There remains scepticism about Mahmood’s reasoning, though, because arguably none of the white ball tours of Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa could be as important as winning the Test series against England at home. Pakistan have not won a Test series at home since early 2021. Apart from losing a Test match to Bangladesh and then a series at home for the first time ever just before this, Pakistan also became the first team to suffer an innings defeat despite scoring over 500 runs in their first innings in the first Test against England. A defeat in the second Test would mark the second consecutive Test series that they have lost to England at home.