{"id":128786,"date":"2026-07-05T17:26:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=128786"},"modified":"2026-07-05T17:26:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:26:34","slug":"babar-azam-named-captain-of-west-indies-england-test-squads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/","title":{"rendered":"Babar Azam named captain of West Indies, England Test squads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">LAHORE(National Times)- Babar Azam has been named captain of the Test squads for the tours of both West Indies and England, the Pakistan Men\u2019s National Selection Committee announced on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 16-member squad has been named for the West Indies series, while a 17-member squad has been announced for the England series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The announcement was made during a press conference at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Sunday, while the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the squad lineup in a press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pakistan will play a two-match Test series against the West Indies from July 25 to August 6, followed by a three-match Test series in England from August 19 to September 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The PCB statement added that left-arm spinner Ali Usman, right-handed batter Muhammad Awais Zafar, right-arm fast bowler Ubaid Shah and wicket-keeper batter Muhammad Ghazi Ghori are the uncapped players in the squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previously, sources had reported that several key decision-makers were&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2012824\">not<\/a>&nbsp;in favour of either reinstating Azam as captain or handing the additional responsibility of Test leadership to T20 skipper Salman Ali Agha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In February, Azam was moved down the batting order for Pakistan\u2019s final T20 World Cup group game against&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1974236\">Namibia<\/a>&nbsp;for scoring too slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He returned to form in April, however, with a blistering&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1993346\">century<\/a>&nbsp;off 52 balls driving Peshawar Zalmi to victory during the Pakistan Super League match against the Quetta gladiators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>16-member squad (in alphabetical order) for West Indies series:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Babar Azam (captain), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Fazal, Ali Usman, Azan Awais, Imam ul Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Mohammad Awais Zafar, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (wicket-keeper), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Shan Masood and Ubaid Shah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>17-member squad (in alphabetical order) for England series:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Babar Azam (captain), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Fazal, Ali Usman, Azan Awais, Imam ul Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Muhammad Awais Zafar, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (wicket-keeper), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel (subject to fitness), Shan Masood and Ubaid Shah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAHORE(National Times)- Babar Azam has been named captain of the Test squads for the tours of both West Indies and England, the Pakistan Men\u2019s National Selection Committee announced on Sunday. A 16-member squad has been named for the West Indies series, while a 17-member squad has been announced for the England series. The announcement was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Babar Azam named captain of West Indies, England Test squads - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Babar Azam named captain of West Indies, England Test squads - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LAHORE(National Times)- Babar Azam has been named captain of the Test squads for the tours of both West Indies and England, the Pakistan Men\u2019s National Selection Committee announced on Sunday. A 16-member squad has been named for the West Indies series, while a 17-member squad has been announced for the England series. The announcement was [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-05T12:26:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-05T12:26:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-11-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/\",\"name\":\"Babar Azam named captain of West Indies, England Test squads - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-11-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-05T12:26:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-05T12:26:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-11-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-11-1.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Babar Azam named captain of West Indies, England Test squads\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Babar Azam named captain of West Indies, England Test squads - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128786\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Babar Azam named captain of West Indies, England Test squads - Nation","og_description":"LAHORE(National Times)- Babar Azam has been named captain of the Test squads for the tours of both West Indies and England, the Pakistan Men\u2019s National Selection Committee announced on Sunday. 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