There have been several episodes of sweeping changes in the Pakistan side over the last few years but such a large-scale overhaul in between a Test series for a dead rubber is unprecedented.

It was only the last month that Jamal was recalled to the Test squad for the Test tours of the Caribbean and UK while Usman and Zafar were handed maiden Test calls. Jamal and Zafar were only used in the first Test against West Indies in Tarouba. But what is particularly intriguing is the call to send Usman back to Pakistan, even after he bagged his maiden five-for in the second innings at Headingley and became the first away spinner to do so at the otherwise seam-friendly venue since 1972.

There have been calls to drop Rizwan because of his diminishing batting returns. Though he displayed exceptional glovework on this tour while standing up to the stumps against the medium-pace of Mohmmad Abbas, he has struggled with the bat. He made scores of 7 and 1 at Lord’s and 12 and 41 at Headingley. He had scored only 41 runs across three innings in the West Indies.

Imam was diagnosed with a grade-1 tear in his left calf after the conclusion of the first day’s play at Lord’s and did not appear on the field during either of Pakistan’s innings, which attracted severe scrutiny. He emerged on the Lord’s outfield before the start of the fourth day’s play to face gentle throwdowns from the batting coach with his injured leg heavily strapped. The move attracted strong criticism with Stuart Broad, one of the Sky commentators, going on to suggest it was being done for the optics.

Agha, Pakistan’s T20I captain, did not play the Lord’s Test as he was dropped after he stood in as a captain at Headingley, ostensibly for the decline in his batting form.

Fazal, initially, was supposed to be with the squad in the UK as he was named for the two tours, but the team management pulled him out of the side after declaring him unfit on the eve of the Tarouba Test. He was replaced by Abdullah Shafique in the second Test who went on to score a match-winning century, handing Pakistan their first away win in the format since July 2023.

Ayub has not played for Pakistan since the T20 World Cup earlier this year and had been overlooked for selection across all formats because of concerns around his fitness. He was deemed to have been carrying an injury and underwent a rehabilitation programme at the Hanif Mohammad Centre in Karachi. He is currently playing for Jamaica Kingsmen in the CPL and made a century against Patriots last week. But, he has played only two first-class matches, which were in the last year’s Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, since his last Test in January 2025 in which he sustained an ankle fracture.

Among the uncapped players, left-arm orthodox Minhas is the only player to have played international cricket. He made his debut against Australia in an ODI in May this year and earned the player-of-the-match award on a pitch which favoured the spinners heavily.

Baig, the Karachi-born wicketkeeper-batter, was the player of the tournament in the last edition of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy after finishing as the highest run-scorer. He is now the second wicketkeeper in the squad which already includes Ghazi Ghori, who has been touring with the Test side since the Bangladesh series.

Among the three uncapped fast bowlers, Randhawa is the most experienced bowler with 58 first-class appearances. Razaullah made his first-class debut in the last season and has played eight matches. Imran Jnr, who made his first-class debut in November 2022, has played only eight first-class matches in the last three seasons.

The current coaching set-up with Sarfaraz at the helm was only appointed in April ahead of an away series against Bangladesh and this was the former Pakistan captain’s only third series in the role. Same was the case for Gul. Prior to this series, Pakistan had replaced Asad Shafiq with Mike Smith in the batting coach’s capacity.

The defeat at Lord’s was Pakistan’s 15th in the last 20 Tests. They currently sit at the bottom of the World Test Championship standings, which is exactly where they finished the last cycle.

Pakistan Test squad for Birmingham Test: Babar Azam (capt), Abdullah Fazal, Arafat Minhas, Azan Awais, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Imran, Mohammad Imran Jnr, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (wk), Razaullah, Saad Baig (wk) Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood and Ubaid Shah

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