Babar and Rizwan dropped from T20s against New Zealand, Salman Agha to lead – Sport

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday announced the men’s squad for the upcoming tour of New Zealand.

Salman Ali Agha will be captaining the T20 International team while One Day International (ODI) captain, Mohammad Rizwan, will continue to lead the team in that format.

However, a notable change in the T20 team is the exclusion of the country’s star batsman Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Rizwan.

Pakistan will play five T20s and three ODIs during the tour.

The team announcement comes amid widespread criticism of the national team’s poor performance in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

Pakistan’s early exit from the tournament, marked by losses to India and New Zealand as well as a washed-out match against Bangladesh, has sparked calls for reforms within the PCB.

“The decision to appoint Salman and Shadab as T20I captain and vice-captain, respectively, has been made with an eye on two major upcoming tournaments — the ACC Men’s T20 Asia Cup 2025 (September 2025) and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 (February/March 2026),” the statement issued by the PCB said.

It added that Salman had previously led Pakistan men in a T20 series against Zimbabwe last year, winning 2-1.

The statement read that interim head coach and de facto chief selector Aqib Javed will continue performing his duties for the New Zealand tour while Mohammad Yousuf will be joining as batting coach.

Speaking at the press conference in Lahore, T20 captain Salman Agha said: “We have tried to include youngsters who are playing the brand of cricket in domestic cricket that we want to play in international cricket.

“With the focus being on improving intent and approach according to modern-day requirements, and we will give individual goals accordingly. This is a young team, and we will try to play fearless and high risk cricket according to modern-day requirements.”

Leg spinner Shadab Khan will be making a comeback to the T20 team as a deputy to Salman.

Speaking about his selection, Aqib said that: “There is an obvious challenge for us in the selection committee in the form of a lack of all-rounders.

“When Shadab was dropped he was told that you have to bowl longer spells in the red-ball format in domestic cricket which he did. I feel that after bowling longer spells, the concern regarding his accuracy would have ended.”

When asked about Babar and Rizwan’s exclusion from the T20 team, he replied, “You cannot say at any point that they will not be in future plans; however, right now we think that we need to bring in the young lot and change the style of play.