The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have announced Pakistan Test Squad for the World Test Championship home series against England. The 18-men squad was announced on Monday where Chief Selector Mohammad Wasim also congratulated Pakistan’s journey in the Men’s T20 World Cup where they ended as second best.

The 18-men squad sees a few changes from their previous series against Sri Lanka. The breaking news is that Fawad Alam was dropped along with Yasir Shah, Nauman Ali and Hasan Ali. Shaheen Afridi was an obvious exclusion due to his injury that ruled him out of the England and the New Zealand home series.

The new faces included leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed and fast bowlers Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Wasim Junior. We will go into the details of the selected players. 

Pakistan Test Squad

#	Players	Role	Batting Hand	Bowling Type
1	Babar Azam (Captain)	Batter	RH Top order	RH Off Break
2	Abdullah Shafique	Batter	RH Opener	RH Off Break
3	Abrar Ahmed	Bowler	RH Tail	RH Leg Break
4	Azhar Ali	Batter	RH Top order	RH Leg Break
5	Faheem Ashraf	All Rounder	LH Lower Order	LH Fast M
6	Haris Rauf	Bowler	RH Tail	RH Fast
7	Imam ul-Haq	Batter	RH Opener
8	Mohammad Ali	Bowler	RH Tail	RH Fast
9	Mohammad Nawaz	All Rounder	LH Lower Order	LH Off Break
10	Mohammad Rizwan (VC)	Wicket Keeper	RH Middle Order
11	Mohammad Wasim Jnr	All Rounder	RH Lower Order	RH Fast
12	Naseem Shah	Bowler	RH Tail	RH Fast
13	Nauman Ali	Bowler	LH Lower Order	LH Off Break
14	Salman Ali Agha	All Rounder	RH Middle Order	RH Off Break
15	Sarfaraz Ahmed	Wicket Keeper	RH Middle Order
16	Saud Shakeel	Batter	LH Middle Order	LH Off Break
17	Shan Masood	Batter	RH Opener	RH Medium
18	Zahid Mahmood	Bowler	LH Tail	RH Leg Break

Also Read: What should be the bowling attack of Pakistan in the series against England?

Pakistan Test Squad: Who’s in and who’s out?

Included Players

Leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed is having a memorable ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy season. He is easily the highest wicket-taker with the next best just 17 wickets behind. During his run for Sindh, he picked up five 5-fers and one 10-fer in 12 innings. 

Another uncapped bowler Mohammad Ali is a right-arm fast bowler who represents Central Punjab in the QeAT 2022. In six matches, he has picked 24 wickets at a fine average of 25 with two 5-fers and one 10-fer. 

It is expected that both uncapped bowlers will likely make their debuts in the first Test against England at Rawalpindi.

Excluded Players

Fawad Alam has been dropped from the selected 18 members. He had a quiet time in 2022. He scored only 58 runs in the six innings he batted against both Australia (at home) and Sri Lanka (away) with an average of just 9.66 and a best of 24.

Though despite that, he was doing well in the ongoing QeAT season. He averaged 47 with a century and three fifties.

Yasir Shah is another big name to miss out on. He made his Test return in the Sri Lanka series this July. Although his stats in that series shows his performance was mediocre, Yasir played a great role in giving PAK wickets at crucial moments. He was in fact the second-best bowler for his side. 

In the QeAT 2022, he returned slightly poor figures. He picked up 14 wickets so far with an average return of 50 and an economy of almost four.

Pakistan Test Squad: The Importance of the England series

This series will hold significant importance in Pakistan’s chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship Final. In order for Babar Azam and his men to qualify for the final, they must win all five remaining matches or four out of five (with no loss included). 

Scenario for Pakistan after their remaining 5 matches
-they need to atleast win 4 to give themselves some chance pic.twitter.com/38FYdQJnCG

— Cricket baba (@Cricketbaba5) July 28, 2022

Babar and his team held the top two spots after a 1-1 draw over the West Indies and a 2-0 series win over Bangladesh when the 2023 WTC cycle began. However, things changed following their 1-0 loss to Australia at home and then another 1-1 drawn to Sri Lanka.

After the England series, the Green Team will face New Zealand at home shortly. They will play two matches in Karachi and Multan from December 27. Should lose any one of the games, the chances will dip further and will need results from other series.

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