Overview
- The Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Sunday that Babar Azam will lead the Test side for the two-match tour of the West Indies and the three-match tour of England.
- Shan Masood was relieved of the captaincy but kept in both squads as a specialist batter, with selectors saying Masood’s teams repeatedly lost matches from winning positions.
- The squads add four uncapped players — Ubaid Shah, Ali Usman, Muhammad Awais Zafar and Muhammad Ghazi Ghori — while several recent senior pacers were dropped or rested.
- Saud Shakeel was named as the 17th player for the England tour subject to a fitness clearance, and the selection panel that announced the changes included Aaqib Javed, Asad Shafiq and Misbah‑ul‑Haq.
- Pakistan sit low in the ongoing World Test Championship and selectors say these changes are meant to stop a negative run; the immediate test of the reset will be results in Trinidad from July 25 and then in England from August 19.