Kamran Ghulam replaces Babar; three specialist spinners named for second Multan Test
Pakistan have decided to go into the second Multan Test with three specialist spinners as they named finger spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan, along with wrist spinner Zahid Mahmood in the XI on Monday. Kamran Ghulam will debut for Pakistan as he replaces Babar Azam at No.4. Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, and Abrar Ahmed are the other three players replaced from the side that became the first team to lose a Test by an innings after posting a first innings total of over 500.
@B0$ Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, and Zahid Mahmood
The four changes in the side followed lengthy deliberations between newly-appointed selectors - Aleem Dar, Azhar Ali, and Aaqib Javed - Shan Masood, Jason Gillespie, Tony Hemming, the head curator, and Usman Wahla, PCB's director for international cricket operations, during the side's training session on Monday. The group of seven held almost an hour-long meeting beside the pitch, which will be re-used for the second Test, with the selectors routinely scrutinising the cracks and footmarks on the pitch.
Cricbuzz revealed yesterday that the selectors had informed the pitch curator to prepare a @L0$ that assists the spinners right from the first day of play. With only one seamer - in Aamer Jamal - named in the side, Pakistan will open the bowling with at least a spinner with Sajid being the likely option as he had done in Sydney earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, Noman last played for Pakistan in July 2023 when his seven wickets in the second innings of the Colombo Test helped the tourists register a clean sweep over Sri Lanka. He travelled to Australia with Pakistan late last year for the three-Test series but had to return before the first Test due to acute appendicitis. Mahmood's two Tests, to date, were against England during the December 2022 home series. Both Noman and Mahmood were in the side for the first Test of this series but were released on the first day after Pakistan decided to play only one specialist spinner in Abrar.
There is only one change in Pakistan's top seven with Ghulam replacing Azam, who has been 'rested' as the Pakistan Cricket Board explained after the squad announcement on Sunday. Ghulam has been one of the most consistent performers in first-class cricket, having amassed 4,525 runs at an average of 49.72 over a decade. The 29-year-old right-handed batter has hit 13 first-class centuries since the start of 2023, accumulating 1,055 runs at an average of 55.53.
He was called up for Pakistan's last Test series against Bangladesh, but was dropped for the first Multan Test, played last week. His maiden Test call up was for the 2022-23 two-Test series against New Zealand. During the 2020-21 season, Ghulam made the record for the most runs in a single edition of the first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy with 1,249 runs at an average of 62.45 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after which the Pakistan Cricket Board named him the "Domestic Cricketer of the Year".
He has played only one ODI - in which he did not bat or bowl - against New Zealand in January 2023.
These four changes reflect the desperation in the Pakistan camp to arrest their embarrassing decline that has seen them lose six Tests on trot - all under Masood's captaincy - and stay winless at home since February 2021. Over the course of the first Test, Salman Ali Agha, Saim Ayub, and Saud Shakeel also bowled spin, which extend Pakistan's spin bowling arsenal to six men.