The touring Pakistan team have been served massive blows with captain Babar Azam and opener Imam-ul-Haq being ruled out of the first Test against New Zealand scheduled to start on December 26 in Mount Maunganui. Both of them were hit on their hand in the practice session. While Babar Azam had fractured his right thumb while Imam failed to recover from a fracture in his left thumb.
With Babar Azam getting ruled out, the newly-promoted vice-captain of the side, Mohammed Rizwan, will be captaining the Pakistan Test team in Mount Maunganui. Rizwan has played only nine Tests in his career and will be the 33rd captain of Pakistan in the longest format of the game when he steps out for the toss.
The touring selection committee has added Imran Butt in the 17-member-squad for the first Test. Butt has been a prolific run-scorer for his side, Balochistan, in the domestic Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2019-20, with 934 runs at an average of over 62 with four centuries and three half-centuries.
Pakistan have already lost the T20 series by 2-0 with a match remaining to be played in the three-match series and they will certainly miss Babar Azam, who is also the best batsman in the lineup and the coach Misbah-ul-Haq did not hide his disappointment on his injury.
“Although it will be nearly two weeks to Babar’s injury when the first Test starts, it will be hard on him and the team to play him without any net sessions. I remain confident and optimistic that other players will rise to the occasion in Mount Maunganui and use the opportunity to rise to the occasion and put the disappointment of the T20I series behind them,” Misbah said.
Mohammad Rizwan (captain for 1st Test), Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Butt, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan and Yasir Shah.
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