{"id":780590,"date":"2026-07-05T12:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/780590\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T12:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:49:12","slug":"pakistan-babar-azam-replaces-shan-masood-to-become-test-captain-for-second-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/780590\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan: Babar Azam replaces Shan Masood to become Test captain for second time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Babar Azam has been reinstated as Pakistan’s Test captain before the upcoming tours of the West Indies and England.<\/p>\n

The top-order batter, 31, was previously Test captain from November 2020 to November 2023 and has returned in place of Shan Masood.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 36-year-old has overseen 13 defeats in 16 Tests since taking over from Azam in December 2023.<\/p>\n

Pakistan finished ninth and bottom of the 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle and lie ninth in the current cycle after a 2-0 series defeat in Bangladesh in May.<\/p>\n

Speaking as the new Pakistan Test squad was announced, selector Aaqib Javed said on Sunday: “Baber will be our new Test captain as we feel that Masood could not lead as desired.<\/p>\n

“The selection committee discussed who could be the best player to lead Pakistan and Baber is the best option.”<\/p>\n

Babar resigned as Pakistan captain in all formats<\/a> following a disappointing World Cup campaign in 2023.<\/p>\n

He returned as skipper for the men’s T20 World Cup in 2024 before stepping down as limited-overs captain for a second time in October 2024 to focus on his playing role.<\/a><\/p>\n

Pakistan’s two Tests against the West Indies are from 25 July and 2 August, before they play three Tests in England – at Headingley (19 August), Lord’s (27 August) and Edgbaston (9 September).<\/p>\n

Fast bowlers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali have been left out after being part of the squad in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

In comes uncapped 20-year-old fast bowler Ubaid Shah, the younger brother of Naseem, who missed out. Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas and Mohammad Ali are the three other fast bowlers selected.<\/p>\n

Uncapped middle-order batsman Awais Zafar and left-arm spinner Ali Usman have been called up for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Babar Azam has been reinstated as Pakistan’s Test captain before the upcoming tours of the West Indies and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-780590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}