Pakistan include four uncapped players for Bangladesh Tests

KARACHI, Apr 18 (Agencies): Pakistan included four uncapped players in their squad announced Saturday for next month's two Test matches against Bangladesh, and also appointed Sarfaraz Ahmed as head coach.
The matches, part of the World Test Championship (WTC) will be played in Dhaka (May 08-12) and Sylhet (12-16). Top-order batter Shan Masood will lead the Test side, which has promising new players in Azan Awais, Abdullah Fazal, Amad Butt and Muhammad Ghazi Ghori, selected on their good performances in domestic cricket. Spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan remain Pakistan's main strength with the pace attack including Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali.

The players will undergo a camp in Karachi and are scheduled to fly to Bangladesh on May 02.
Pakistan Cricket Board also appointed Sarfaraz as head coach to the post that was vacant after Azhar Mahmood resigned last year.
"PCB also confirms the appointment of red-ball coaches for the Bangladesh tour, with former Test captain Ahmed appointed as head coach with Asad Shafiq and Umar Gul working as batting and bowling coaches, respectively, on the tour," the PCB said in a statement naming the 16-member squad.Shafiq and Gul are both former Pakistan players.
Pakistan are fifth on the Test Championship table after drawing their two-match series 1-1 at home against South Africa last year.
The four uncapped players have been in good form in domestic first-class cricket. Fazal was the leading run-scorer in the recent President's Trophy, where he made 622 runs in seven matches at an average of 51.83. The opening batter's highest score was 182; he made two centuries and as many half-centuries.
Fazal was followed on the table by wicketkeeper-batter Ghori, who made 531 runs at 48.27 with the same number of centuries as Fazal. Ghori recently made his international debut during Pakistan's ODI tour of Bangladesh. Awais has been in prime form over the last two first-class seasons. He has scored 2673 runs - averaging 48.6 - and hit ten centuries across the last two seasons of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and President's Trophy. The opening batter was the leading run-scorer with 844 runs from eight matches in the 2024-25 edition of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. Fast-bowling allrounder Butt's four wickets played a pivotal role in PTV's record defence of 40 against SNGPL in January 2026.
Squad: Shan Masood (captain), Abdullah Fazal, Amad Butt, Azan Awais, Babar Azam, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi.

This will be Sarfaraz's first coaching assignment with a senior Pakistan side.
The former Pakistan captain, who famously led them to the Champions Trophy triumph in 2017, worked as a coach/mentor with the Under-19s at the recent Asia Cup, which they went on to win with victory over India in the final, and at the last World Cup. He then served in the same role with Pakistan Shaheens for their series against England Lions in the UAE, which was cut short because of the West Asia crisis.
Sarfaraz will be joined by his former Pakistan team-mates Asad Shafiq and Umar Gul as batting and bowling coach respectively. While Shafiq, who is a member of both the men's and women's selection panels, has never been in a coaching role before, Gul has previously worked in the capacity with the Pakistan men's white-ball sides.