Pakistan likely to drop Babar Azam for second Test against England in Multan | Report

Babar Azam has scored merely 352 runs in nine Test matches since the start of 2023 without a fifty-plus score. The former captain could only manage scores of 30 and 5 in the first Test against England in Multan.

Babar Azam is likely to be dropped from the playing XI for the second Test against England to be played at the Multan Cricket Stadium. While the team for the second Test match is yet to be announced, reports suggest that the decision to drop Babar was recommended by the reconstituted selection committee comprising new voting members in the form of Aqib Javed, Azhar Ali and Aleem Dar.

Notably, Babar is going through a lean patch. The former Pakistan captain hasn't had a fifty-plus score in the last 18 innings. His last fifty-plus score was 161 which he had scored against New Zealand in a drawn Test match in December 2022.

Babar's average in the red-ball format has nosedived to 43.92 and he has been clearly struggling to score runs. The right-handed batter had a wonderful opportunity to rack up a huge score in the first Test against England in Multan. However, he could only manage to score 35 runs across the two innings.

Pakistan had hosted Bangladesh for a two-match Test series prior to the ongoing series against England and Babar's struggle was apparent during that contest. 0, 22, 31, and 11 was all that Babar could aggregate across the four innings of the two Test matches. Pakistan lost the two-match series 2-0 and were bashed by numerous former cricketers as it was their first series loss to Bangladesh in the red-ball format.

Meanwhile, Pakistan are languishing at the bottom of the points table in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle and have been knocked out of the race to the finals.

Updated WTC Points Table after Pakistan's loss to England in Multan