Pakistan will walk into the first Test against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi on Monday with a squad that looks less like a selection and more like a rebuild. The Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed on Saturday, 7 November, that four players have been added to the Test squad, three of them uncapped, while two players from the original squad have been released. The squad now stands at 16, and six of those 16 players have never played a Test match. The first Test runs from 9 to 13 November at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium and the second from 17 to 21 November at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Six of sixteen have never played a Test
The PCB had already named an initial 14-member squad on 24 October, and that squad already contained three uncapped batters in Sameer Minhas, Mohammad Taha and Mohammad Suleman. Add the three new uncapped players, batter Muhammad Tayyab Arif and fast bowlers Ali Shabbir and Saqib Khan, and the count reaches six uncapped players in a 16-man squad. That is 37.5 percent of the group, more than one in three, and no other outlet has put that combined figure together. The revision is simple arithmetic: four players in, two players out, a net gain of two, taking the squad from 14 to 16. Only ten of the 16 have played Test cricket before, and Jamal is the only addition with Test experience. Babar Azam continues as captain, and Mohammad Abbas will lead the pace attack. The selectors have handed more than a third of the squad to players who have never worn the Test cap.
The domestic numbers that earned the calls
The domestic records are hard to argue with. Tayyab Arif, a 19-year-old right-handed batter from Sialkot, scored 727 runs in seven matches at an average of 66.09 in his maiden first-class season, including three centuries, while leading Kingsmen Academy in the Departmental first-class tournament. Ali Shabbir, a 19-year-old fast bowler, has claimed 22 wickets in eight first-class matches, and he played in the Patron’s XI warm-up against Sri Lanka from 4 to 6 November. Saqib Khan played a key role in Karachi Blues’ title-winning campaign in the 2025-26 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, taking 47 wickets in nine matches at an average of 20.60, with best figures of seven for 34. Jamal took seven for 32 and scored 55 in the President’s Trophy Grade-I final, and he has played nine Tests, three one-day internationals and six Twenty20 internationals, last appearing against West Indies in July 2026.
Who is out, and what it leaves open
The other side of the revision is who has gone. Ali Usman and Abdullah Fazal, both named in the original 14-member squad, have been released. A report before the revision had tipped Fazal to open alongside Azan Awais, so the selectors have removed one of their own possible openers two days before the first Test. Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq remain outside the squad as well, and Rizwan’s absence continues to draw attention, with one report noting that he scored an unbeaten double century in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. The squad carries two wicketkeepers, Mohammad Ghazi Ghori and Saad Baig, so the gloves will go to one of them rather than to the most experienced keeper in the country. Salman Agha scored 107 against Sri Lanka in the tri-series opener last month. Pakistan clinched the T20 series against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi last month. Three questions remain: who opens with Azan Awais, who keeps wicket, and how many of the six uncapped players make the eleven on Monday.
What is at stake in Rawalpindi
The series matters beyond the debuts. Pakistan sit bottom of the World Test Championship 2025-27 table, while Sri Lanka are seventh, so every point in these two Tests is a chance to climb out of last place. Pakistan lead the head-to-head 23 wins to 17 across 59 Tests, with 19 draws. Sri Lanka arrive with a 15-member squad led by Kusal Mendis, who will captain the side in Tests for the first time. Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi featured in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy opener. One report before the series said head coach Mike Hesson had asked for pace-friendly tracks in Rawalpindi and Lahore, which would suit a squad that now carries five pace options. Three tests will settle it. First, how many of the six uncapped players make the eleven on 9 November. Second, whether the pace-heavy selection delivers wickets in Rawalpindi. Third, whether the omissions, above all Rizwan’s, survive a bad result, or whether the selectors revisit them before the second Test in Lahore. More sports news from Pakistan will follow the series from Rawalpindi and Lahore.
