Saud Shakeel stated that Babar Azam's resignation as the Pakistan ODI and T20I team captain will not impact the Test team. Babar resigned from his national limited-overs captaincy for the second time in 12 months on Tuesday, citing a desire to alleviate the workload of captaincy and concentrate more on his batting.
Saud Shakeel on Babar Azam's captaincy exit
Shakeel assured that Babar's resignation has not affected the atmosphere within the Test team. Shakeel is poised to play a pivotal role in the batting department when Pakistan faces England in the inaugural Test in Multan, beginning on Monday, October 7.
“If a selector resigns, it’s his personal decision and Babar’s decision is also personal and is in white-ball cricket. So, it doesn’t make a difference as both things are related to different formats. The red-ball team won’t be affected, and we didn’t discuss it in our setup either as a group. The environment is healthy,” Shakeel said in a press conference.
Pakistan recently suffered a 2-0 Test series defeat against Bangladesh at home, which marked their first-ever loss in the Test format against Bangladesh. Prior to this, Pakistan was whitewashed 3-0 in their second-to-last Test series against Australia.
In contrast, England recently clinched a 2-1 Test series victory over Sri Lanka. They lost the final Test of the series at the Oval by eight wickets following an unusual batting collapse. England has won four of their last five Test matches.
England toured Pakistan in 2022 for a three-match Test series and emerged victorious with a 3-0 whitewash, becoming the first Test team to achieve this feat in Pakistan. Shakeel, who contributed 346 runs to the series at an average of 57.66, emphasized that the hosts need to capitalize on the opportunities England presents with their aggressive style of cricket.
“If you look at the last series, the one we played against England, we got close many times. But we were unable to finish. England provide a lot of chances given the way they play their cricket in an attacking way. We only have to take advantage of the opportunities and win the series,” Shakeel added.
Shan Masood's men are positioned at the eighth place in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 table, having accumulated 16 points from seven matches.
ENGLAND PLAYING XI FOR FIRST TEST
England Playing XI for first Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir.
