Pakistan have announced an 18-member squad for the three-match Test series against England in December 2022. Here are some key takeaways from the squad.

After playing seven Twenty20 Internationals against Pakistan in Karachi and Lahore in September and October, England beat Pakistan in the T20 World Cup final to win their second title. They will now return for the second leg of the tour, for three Test matches, in Rawalpindi, Multan, and Karachi. Given the success of the T20Is – the 97.35 percent attendance is a record for any series on Pakistan soil, the Test series is likely to be keenly followed.

This will be England’s first Test tour of Pakistan since 2005/06. They lost the series 0-2, their biggest margin of defeat in the country. England did win their first ever series in Pakistan, back in 1961/62, and again in 2000/01, both by 1-0 margins. Pakistan, on the other hand, won 1-0 in both 1984/85 and 1987/88. However, 18 draws in 24 Test matches sum up how these series have shaped out over the years.

Ahead of the series, Pakistan have announced their squad: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc & wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood, Zahid Mahmood.

Here are the key takeaways from Pakistan’s squad.

There is a mystery spinner!

When Pakistan toured England in 1982, Imran Khan had insisted Abdul Qadir – never easy to pick up until one was familiar with leg-breaks and googlies – grew a goatee to help consolidate the prototypical Wizard of the East image. Four decades later, Pakistan have summoned yet another mystery spinner (his official bowling style is leg-break) against England. There is no goatee, but the Sindh man’s glasses may make up for that.

Abrar Ahmed’s has been a curiously brief yet remarkably fruitful career. In a country where cricketers often debut for the national side in their teens, 24-year-old Abrar has played only 13 First-class matches. Yet, these matches have fetched him 76 wickets (nearly six a match) at 25.56 apiece. Over the last two seasons, the numbers read 60 wickets in eight matches at 19.27. You can see why they picked him ahead of Yasir Shah.

There is a seamer too…

Yet another bowler with too First-class matches for his numbers, Mohammad Ali of Central Punjab made his First-class debut at 25, and has played only 22 times. His 85 wickets have come at a mere 23.37; of these 56 have come across the last two seasons. While not express, he certainly knows a thing or two about bowling on these pitches.

 

If Ali plays, what will make his debut remarkable is his age. If he plays, he will become the first tricenarian specialist seamer to debut for Pakistan on home soil.

Rauf gets a call-up

Rauf’s terrific show in the shorter formats have earned him a call-up as well. The conditions are going to be different from the spin-friendly UAE, where Pakistan spent a decade and a half ‘hosting’ Test matches. Earlier this year, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Naseem Shah could all reverse-swing the ball while bowling at great pace – so why not pick Rauf, who has been doing that with the white ball for years now? It makes sense.

Yasir, Fawad, Hasan left out

The injured Shaheen was not expected to return for the series, but there were three other omissions as well. Since the start of 2019, Yasir Shah, the man with the fifth-most Test wickets for Pakistan, has taken 41 wickets at 46.43 from 14 Test matches. His ordinary show at the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (14 wickets at 43.71) have not helped his cause either.

Also missing out is Fawad Alam, who returned to Test cricket after 11 years in 2020 to score three hundreds in nine Tests. However, his poor form this year – 0, 9, 13, 11, 24, 1 – forced the selectors to take a call. Similarly, Hasan had an excellent 2021 (41 wickets at 16.07), but five wickets in four Tests in 2022 did not help his cause.

Wasim Jr, Zahid recalled

Wasim Jr has played only seven First-class matches, and has bowled 17.2 overs a match. However, his pace, ability to reverse-swing, and batting credentials (which, to be fair, have not been established yet) have helped him earn a place after he was left out of the squad for the Sri Lanka tour.

Zahid Mehmood, the Hyderabad leg-spinner, was not part of that squad either. He returns to the squad as well, presumably as backup spinner.

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