Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan Out of Asia Cup Squad

CricDiary: Pakistan have left out Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan from the upcoming Asia Cup squad. Salman Agha will captain a 17-member side that will also contest in a tri-series against Afghanistan and hosts United Arab Emirates (UAE) before the big tournament kicks off. Fakhar Zaman, who suffered a hamstring injury in the first week of this month, has recovered and is part of the team. The Asia Cup will be played in a T20I format this time.

Babar last featured in T20Is back in December 2024. He had a decent run in the Pakistan Super League 2025 with 288 runs for Peshawar Zalmi that included scores of 94, 56 not out and 53 not out. His strike rate was of 128.57.

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Rizwan too, after being overlooked for Pakistan’s recent T20 games against Bangladesh and West Indies, couldn’t make the cut despite starting the one-day international (ODI) series in the Caribbean with a 53 before tapering off with 16 and zero.

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Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson said that Babar had been challenged with improving his T20 game. “I think it’s really harsh to challenge a player on their form on three games,” he said at a press conference. “Babar played nicely in the first ODI but missed out on the next two. There’s no doubt Babar’s been asked to improve in some areas around taking on spin and in terms of his strike rate. Those are things he’s working really hard on.”

Pakistan squad for the  tri-series & Asia Cup 2025: Salman Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, , Fakhar Zaman, Faheem Ashraf Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Hussain Talat, Hasan Nawaz, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim, Mohammad Nawaz, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Mirza, Saim Ayub, Sufiyan Muqeem