Babar Azam is ready to return to the red-ball action as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has called the captain of the former national cricket team for an intensive testing training camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.
The training camp is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, September 9, and will run against South Africa from Pakistan’s much awaited home test series exactly 28 September.
PCB calls Babar Azam and 10 others for an intense red ball training camp
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has confirmed that 11 players have been selected for this special camp, in which Babar Azam leads the group. He will train under the interim red-ball head coach Azhar Mahmud, who will be among the experienced coaching and assistant employees of the NCA.
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The Pakistani players selected for the upcoming testing training camp include Abdullah Shafiq, Ali Raza, Azan Aves, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Salman, Rohil Nazir, Sajeed Khan and Shamil Hussain.
The two major names missing from the camp are Pakistan’s ODI captain Mohammad Rizwan and Naseem Shah, who were unavailable for selection as they are currently busy with their commitments from the Caribbean Premier League 2025 (CPL 2025) in the Caribbean Islands.
Players will also participate in landscape-based matches: PCB
PCB said in an official media release on 6 September: “The camp is designed to provide assistance to the players to work on their skills, as well as to assess the fitness of a busy red ball international and domestic season. The selected players are those who are not included in the Hanif Mohammad Trophy (four-day). Will also participate in the 20-day camp.”
This training camp is not only about the preparation of Babar Azam, but is about to prove a point after the T20I team is sidelined and a long, rough patch in ODI and Test cricket. Babar Azam was recently ignored for the upcoming Asia Cup 2025, which begins on the same day.
Babur last played a Test against the West Indies in Multan earlier this year, where he scored just 1 and 31 runs in a 120 -run defeat. The 30 -year -old has played 59 Tests for Pakistan since his debut in 2016. He has 4235 Test runs in his name at an average of over 42.
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Pakistan’s Test season closes with South Africa series
Well, Pakistan’s Test season will begin with the blockbuster home series against South Africa, with the first Test set to be played in Lahore from October 12 and the second Test from October 20 in Rawalpindi. These two matches against South Africa are very important for Pakistan, as the series will mark the start of their ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2025777.
After the two-match test series, the focus will transfer to white-ball cricket. Pakistan and South Africa will play three T20Is on 28 October, 31 and 1 November.
The T20I series opener will be held at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, while the remaining two matches will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Just after T20Is, both teams will play three Odis at Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad on November 4, 6 and 8.