Babar Azam couldn’t get out of his fractured thumb and is likely to miss the Test series as well after T20Is.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), on Monday, announced 17-member squad for the first Test of two matches series excluding Babar and opener Imam-ul-Haq, both suffering from thumb fracture.
In absence of Babar, the Test team will be led by his deputy, wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan who will become the 33rd Test captain in history of Test cricket for Pakistan.
Read: ‘I wish Babar Azam surpasses my records’ Younis Khan
According to the reports, Babar will not be able to play the entire Test series, meanwhile, PCB said his participation in the second Test will be decided closer to the time.
It must be noted here that Pakistan will play the first Test against New Zealand from December 26 while the second Test is scheduled to start from January 3.
Squad for first Test
Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Butt, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan and Yasir Shah.
