Shan Masood Captain, Babar In! Pakistan announce squad for Australia Tests

Shan Masood is set to commence his journey as Pakistan captain, as the Pakistan Cricket Board announced the team for the upcoming test series in Australia.

After their World Cup 2023 debacle, the PCB has undertaken a radical change in their team and coaching setup. Babar Azam stepped down from captaincy across all formats and Shan Masood was appointed as the Test captain.

And as they kickstart the new World Test Championship cycle, Pakistan will be looking for a better outing than the previous two editions.

Babar Azam is also included in the 18-member side, while former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed is also going to be a part of the team. Among the World Cup squad, the likes of Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel are there, and Shaheen Afridi, the newly appointed T20I captain for Pakistan is set to spearhead their pace attack.

Chief selector Wahab Riaz, reflecting on the squad said, "The squad has been assembled keeping in mind the challenging Australian conditions. We have kept the pitches in mind and added more pace bowling resources to the team to ensure that the management can be flexible with the team combinations in all three Test matches.

Youngster Saim Ayub has also been included in the Test team. The 21-year-old is tipped to be the next big thing and has already payed T20Is for Pakistan.

Australia, the newly crowned World champions are also the WTC mace holders and will be looking forward to kickstart the new cycle with a decent performance of their won.

The three-match Test series starts on December 14 and will continue till January 7, 2024. The series starts off in Perth, and the remaining two matches will be played in Melbourne and Sydney respectively.

Pakistan Squad for Australia Tests

Shan Masood (c), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Saim Ayub, Salman Agha, Saud Shakeel, Faheem Ashraf, Nauman Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Shaheen Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza