Three uncapped players, Asif Afridi, Faisal Akram and Rohail Nazir have been named in the Pakistan squad for the two-match test series against South Africa.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has unveiled an 18-member squad in a media release on September 30. As per the South Africa tour of Pakistan 2025, the sides will play two tests, three ODIs and as many T20Is to be played in October and November.
Shan Masood will continue to lead the test side despite a poor captaincy records with just three wins from 12 games.
The top order consists of Masood, Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq form the top three while the middle-order comprises Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Kamram Ghulam, Salman Agha and Saud Shakeel.
However, Saim Ayub has been snubbed from the squad after his horrifice run with the bat in the recently concluded Asia Cup 2025. Out of seven matches, he scored 4 ducks.
His highest score is 21 runs which comes from the Asia Cup finals against India. Ayub had a decent figures in bowling bagging 8 wickets in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Pakistan have named five spinners – Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Abrar Ahmed, along with left-arm bowlers Afridi and Akram.
The pace bowling unit is rounded off with the selectio of Aamir Jamal, Hasan Ali, Khurram Shahzad, and Shaheen Afridi.
The two match test series will be part of the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 with the first matc set to be played from October 12 at Lahore while the second test will be hosted at Rawalpindi.
With South Africa are the defending champions and Pakistan are at the bottom of the standing in the last cycle, winning only five of the 14 tests.
Pakistan squad: Shan Masood (c), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Asif Afridi, Babar Azam, Faisal Akram, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Noman Ali, Rohail Nazir (wk), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi
