Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan picked as Pakistan announce squad for South Africa Test series

Pakistan have announced their 18-member squad for the upcoming two-match Test series against South Africa. Shan Masood has been retained as captain, while Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have also been picked. Notably, the star duo missed the recently concluded Asia Cup as they have been sidelined from the shortest format of the game, even as Pakistan lost to India three times in 15 days.

As far as the squad is concerned, three uncapped players - Asif Afridi, Faisal Akram and Rohail Nazir - have been included as they have been rewarded for putting up a good show in the domestic circuit. Pakistan's T20I skipper Salman Ali Agha has also kept his position in the Test squad, while Abdullah Shafique, Kamran Ghulam, Imam-ul-Haq, and Saud Shakeel are the other players in the batting group.

It could be a trial by spin for South Africa in the Test series as Pakistan have included two of their best spinners in Sajid Khan and Noman Ali, who did extremely well during the home



season for them last time around. Abrar Ahmed is the third specialist spinner in their line-up. The series at home is also the start of the World Test Championship 2025-27 for Pakistan and South Africa.

It is a long tour of Pakistan for South Africa, with the first Test to be played from October 12 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, while Rawalpindi will host the second Test from October 20 and the first T20I on October 28 before the action again moves to Lahore for the last two T20Is. Meanwhile, Faisalabad is making a comeback to host international cricket and three ODIs will be played at the venue from November 4 to 8.

Pakistan squad for Test series vs South Africa: Shan Masood (captain), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Asif Afridi, Babar Azam, Faisal Akram, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Noman Ali, Rohail Nazir (wicket-keeper), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi