Ali Usman, Abdullah Fazal removed from Pakistan Test squad

Pakistan have overhauled the Test squad they announced for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka, releasing two players and calling up another four.

Less than two days out from the start of the first Test in Rawalpindi, Pakistan have added two pace bowlers, as they said they would when an initial 14-man squad was announced two weeks ago. The uncapped duo of Ali Shabbir and Saqib Khan, who were part of a recently concluded warm-up defeat against Sri Lanka, join the squad. Seam bowling allrounder Aamer Jamal has also been included, as has 20-year-old batter Tayyab Arif. More notably, opener Abdullah Fazal and spinner Ali Usman are no longer part of the squad.

A PCB media release confirming the changes did not offer explanations for Fazal and Usman's removal. Fazal made his debut against Bangladesh earlier this year following a Player-of-the-Match performance in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final last year. He was part of Pakistan's tours to the West Indies and England, only to be ruled out with a lower back injury. He was, however, called back for the final Test at Edgbaston where Pakistan made wholesale changes to that squad, but did not feature.

For Ali Usman, this is the second Test in a row where he has been released from a squad he was part of. In September, during the build-up to the third Test against England, head coach Mike Hesson had indicated Usman would only play a limited role in future, saying playing "a finger spinner who can't contribute with either bat or field" in conditions not conducive to spin was unlikely. He bowled just two overs in the warm-up game against Sri Lanka.

The changes indicate Pakistan have made up their mind about the kind of surface they expect for the Rawalpindi Test, one that in no way resembles pitches for Test cricket in Pakistan over the last couple of years. The 16-man squad includes just one player who counts spin bowling as their primary skill - Arafat Minhas - who also doubles as a lower-middle-order batter. Sajid Khan and Noman Ali, fixtures of the home Test scene during this time, never made the cut, with Usman's release further clarifying Pakistan's strategy.

Those spin-friendly tracks were prepared specifically for sides who were not perceived to have quality spin options among their ranks. But Sri Lanka have no such problem, and Pakistan were wary of playing to the visitors' strengths. When Bangladesh visited in 2024, the surfaces - especially for the first Test, was extremely flat, only for Bangladesh to amass 565 in their first innings and eventually walk away with a 2-0 series win.

Pakistan desperately need to turn around a disastrous World Test Championship campaign that has seen them place rock bottom in the standings. A mixture of over rate penalties and seven defeats in nine matches has given them a points percentage of 4.63, nearly six times lower than second-from-bottom West Indies. Sri Lanka are placed seventh.

The first Test will be played in Rawalpindi on November 9, with the series moving to Lahore for the second on November 17.