Pakistan will leave the call on Babar Azam until the morning of the first Test against England, with the batter still recovering from a finger injury two days out from Wednesday’s opener at Headingley.
Babar has been nursing an impact injury to his right hand since the second Test against West Indies, and was struck on the same hand again in Pakistan’s warm-up fixture at Beckenham, retiring hurt in what the PCB called a “precautionary measure”. The tourists trained at Headingley for the first time on Monday, where ESPNcricinfo reported Babar batted only briefly in the nets, without obvious signs of discomfort.
Babar Azam England Test call will come on match day
Mohammad Abbas confirmed neither the medical panel nor the selection committee had reached a verdict. “Whether he plays or not will be a decision taken on match day,” the seamer said at a media conference. “He did a few throwdowns and some batting practice today. But we’ll have to follow medical advice for it.”
An absence would reshape a middle order already in flux. Saud Shakeel, who missed the West Indies series and made a century at Beckenham, and Awais Zafar, capped for the first time in the Caribbean, would both expect to play. The news on Shan Masood was brighter: having fractured a finger in the West Indies, he batted through a full net session on Monday.
It leaves England guessing about the opposition on the opening morning of a three-Test series that begins Joe Root’s second spell as Test captain. Pakistan, whose red-ball rebuild has run through Babar for much of the year, may have to start it without their most decorated batter.
