Pakistan have suffered a major setback ahead of the opening Test against Bangladesh national cricket team after star batter Babar Azam was ruled out with a left knee injury.

The Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed that Babar will miss the first Test in Mirpur, which begins on Friday, though officials stopped short of ruling him out of the entire series. The PCB said the batter’s condition is being closely monitored by the team’s medical staff, News.Az reports, citing ESPN Cric Info.

The injury comes at a frustrating moment for Pakistan, especially after Babar rediscovered top form during the recently concluded Pakistan Super League. The former captain finished as the tournament’s leading run-scorer and guided Peshawar Zalmi to the PSL title after an impressive campaign in which the side lost only one match.

Babar arrived in Bangladesh shortly after the PSL final victory and trained normally with the squad during the first two days. However, he reportedly woke up with pain in his left knee on Thursday morning, prompting medical staff to withdraw him from selection for the opening Test.

His absence leaves Pakistan with a significant gap in the batting order. The team is already relying on a relatively inexperienced top order, with one of Azam Awais or Abdullah Fazal expected to feature despite neither having played Test cricket for Pakistan before. Team management may now be forced to reshuffle the batting lineup, with players such as Mohammad Rizwan or Saud Shakeel potentially moving higher up the order.

The match will also mark the first away Test that Babar has missed since January 2021. Although he was briefly dropped during Pakistan’s home series against England cricket team in late 2024, he quickly regained his place and has remained one of the side’s most consistent selections in red-ball cricket.

Pakistan enter the Bangladesh series under pressure after a mixed start to the current World Test Championship cycle. Shan Masood’s side split a two-match home series against South Africa national cricket team earlier this year, while their last meeting with Bangladesh ended in a disappointing 2-0 home defeat for Pakistan.

With Babar unavailable and uncertainty surrounding his recovery timeline, Pakistan now face an early challenge in what could become another crucial Test series for the team’s World Test Championship ambitions.

News.Az 

By Aysel Mammadzada