In South Asian cricket, we have seen many players' careers destroyed due to politics. And here every board has bad politics. I can't find any reason not to keep Sadab Khan in the squad. As the series will be held in Pakistan. And Pakshithan's pitch is helpful for spinners. Pakistan management should have given Sadab Khan a chance in this series. On the other hand, I am not surprised to not keep Fawad Alam on the team. We know that Fawad Alam is a good player in the Test format. But don't forget he is 37 years old. Perhaps now the Pakistan management does not want to keep any older players in the squad. But if Fawad Alam gets a chance in this series, he might have been able to perform well. England is a strong team, against such a team, experienced players are definitely needed.
Selection is a contentious issue for all the South Asian teams. India recently sacked it's selection committee after the poor performance of the team during the T20 World Cup. And I am sure that the situation is same for Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. And regarding Fawad Alam, I am not sure why the selectors are ignoring him. He got one chance to be in the test squad (July 2022) and could only manage 25 runs from two innings back then. And after that his performance in the domestic matches was also not good. That maybe one of the reasons.
Pakistan needs players who can contribute to the team. The fact that a team like Pakistan still has to depend on certain players to bring results for themselves is just unbelievable and hilarious to some extent. Every player should be reliable and have the potential to produce a match-winning performance at any given time.
Pakistan really need to bring some new captain as Babar is not suitable for this job. We saw clearly he include players that are close to him in squad. Pakistan make it to the finals only because of luck and thanks to there bowling lineup. Pakistan need batsmen.
Who can replace Babar as the test captain? So far he has done a decent job. Most recently, they tied the test series against Sri Lanka 1-1 (hosted by Sri Lanka). Before that, the Benaud-Qadir Trophy ended up in a 1-0 win for Australia. However last year, they swept the series against Bangladesh 2-0. For the last 1-2 years, the performance from the Pakistan team has been quite mixed. The main problem seems to be their inconsistency. Anyway, the next series is going to be quite tough, as it is against one of the top test teams (England).
Atm no one can replace Babar in the Test because there is no replacement, despite his average performance as captain.
Pakistan was a favorite against SL but they messed up with their selection by going with extra seamer instead of Spin. The Series against Australia was an embarrassment due to the flat deck but that's PCB's fault.
I dont know if there is actually any player who can replace Babar Azam as captain of Pakistan. I know that a captain has to be somewhat different from a player in terms of thinking. I think Babar Azam has that ability. Its the Pakistan players who are not performing consistently. Thats why Pakistan is losing or underperforming.
Pakistan should try to play to their strengths. Pakistan should always think about which part they are proficient at and not worry about exploiting the weakness of the opponent too much because that can create some confusion. If Pakistan makes another flat deck again it is going to be a big surprise.
Let's just hope Pakistan has learned from its mistakes and weaknesses from World Cup specially problems with their bat.
Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shan Masood, Saud Shakeel, Salman Agha, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Abrar Ahmed, Zahid Mahmood, Mohammad Nawaz, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Ali.
Matches starting from 1 December 2022.