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 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.
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.
