Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan dropped from Pakistan T20I squad for New Zealand tour

Pakistan have left out Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan for Pakistan’s T20I leg of their white-ball tour of New Zealand. Salman Ali Agha was named as the captain while Shadab Khan was appointed as the vice-captain. Shadab hasn’t played a T20I since the Men’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA.

As per a PCB statement, Pakistan chose Shadab and Salman for the captaincy roles with an eye on two major upcoming tournaments – the Men’s T20 Asia Cup 2025, scheduled to take place in September 2025, and the Men’s T20 World Cup, to be held in 2026).

The squad has quite a few new faces, including Abdul Samad, Hassan Nawaz and Mohammad Ali, who are all yet to play T20Is for Pakistan. Samad scored 115 runs at a strike-rate of 166.67 in the Champions Cup. Nawaz, on the other hand, finished as the second-leading run-getter with 312 runs at a strike-rate of 142.47.

Pakistan, in the meantime, retained Rizwan as their captain for the ODI team. Saim Ayub has missed out from both squads as he is currently recovering from a right ankle fracture, which he sustained on the opening day of the Cape Town Test against South Africa in January.

Pakistan will play three T20Is from March 16 in Christchurch, Dunedin, Auckland, Mount Maunganui and Wellington. The ODIs are set to take place on March 29, April 2 and 5 in Napier, Hamilton and Mount Maunganui.