Pakistan will start their three Test series in England without the man they were built around. Babar Azam has been ruled out of the opening match at Headingley with a hand injury, and for the first time, Salman Ali Agha will lead the side in Test cricket.
It is not the send off Pakistan wanted for their most demanding tour in years. Babar had only just been reappointed captain, the role handed back to him after Shan Masood’s tenure unravelled with 12 defeats in 16 Tests. He had led the scoring against the West Indies, and Pakistan finally snapped an eight match winless run away from home. Momentum, for once, was on their side.
Then a ball found his finger. He was struck on the middle finger of his right hand batting against the West Indies this month, and hit again in the warm up match against a Professional County Club Select XI at Beckenham last week. He retired hurt on 5 and did not bat again. On Tuesday, coach Sarfaraz Ahmed confirmed the worst of what the team already suspected.
“Pakistan captain Babar Azam is unavailable for the first Test match,” Sarfaraz said. “Salman Agha will be the captain for the first Test.”
The injury that changed the plan
The details of the injury are, on the face of it, reassuring. There is no fracture, and the medical team continues to monitor the finger with the hope that the pain will settle in time for the second Test at Lord’s on August 27. Sarfaraz was measured in his assessment, suggesting that with a few days before the second match, there is a genuine chance Babar recovers in time.
“The medical team is assessing Babar. He has quite a bit of pain in the finger. There are still a few days to go before the second Test. Hopefully, he will recover by then,” Sarfaraz said.
But the reassurance only goes so far. Headingley, with its seam and its swing and its unforgiving late August weather, is exactly the kind of place Pakistan needed their best batter. It is a ground where batting is rarely comfortable, where the ball moves all day and the scoreboard pressure never quite goes away. Babar’s calm, his ability to occupy the crease and wear down an attack in conditions that reward exactly that, is precisely the quality Pakistan will miss most.
The timing stings for another reason. Babar had only just climbed back into the ICC Test top ten on the back of 88 in the first Test against the West Indies, followed by an unbeaten 24 in the successful chase in the second. He was, by some distance, Pakistan’s in form batter. Now he watches from the sidelines while his team walks out in Leeds.
Agha steps into the breach
Into Babar’s shoes steps Salman Ali Agha, a player who has captained Pakistan’s T20 side but never led a Test. It is a significant elevation, and one that has arrived with essentially no warning. Agha is no stranger to responsibility, and he will at least have Shan Masood back at the top of the order, the former captain having recovered from his own broken finger to reclaim his place.
But the void Babar leaves is not one you fill by reshuffling a batting card. It is his runs, his temperament, and his presence that Pakistan will miss. Agha can lead with the best of them, but he cannot simply replace the runs of a player who has carried this batting order for the better part of a decade.
The captaincy itself brings a new kind of pressure. Agha will be making his first decisions as a Test captain in the most testing conditions imaginable, against an England side eager to make a statement of their own. How he handles that pressure, both with the bat and in the field, will go a long way to determining Pakistan’s fortunes in the series opener.
England’s parallel story
For England, the story runs parallel. This is Joe Root’s first Test of a second stint as captain, three years after stepping down, with Marcus Trescothick holding the fort until Stephen Fleming takes over later in the year. Root has led England in a record 65 Tests, winning 27 and losing 27, and he insists he is a better captain now than he was the first time around.
“I feel as ready as any other England captain that’s ever been before,” Root said. “To have that amount of experience is invaluable.”
Harry Brook, whom Ben Stokes had endorsed for the captaincy, continues as vice captain, and Root has made clear he feels Brook’s full backing. The post Stokes era, with all the questions that attach to it, begins in earnest at Headingley.
Two teams, both trying to move past difficult chapters, both with questions hanging over them. Pakistan are seventh in the World Test Championship standings, England eighth. Neither can afford to bleed points here.
The conditions and the stakes
Headingley in August is a very particular challenge. The pitch traditionally offers early assistance to the seamers, and the overhead conditions in Leeds can make the ball hoop around for entire sessions at a time. For a Pakistan side accustomed to flatter, truer surfaces, the adjustment is considerable.
Pakistan’s bowlers, at least, have a weapon suited to the occasion. Mohammad Abbas, the metronomic seamer whose control has long been his calling card, is exactly the kind of bowler who thrives in these conditions. The question is whether Pakistan’s batters, shorn of Babar, can give him a total to defend.
The first ball at Headingley will be bowled on Wednesday, and Pakistan will meet it without their captain and their best batter. It is a handicap nobody would have scripted, and a test of depth they could have done without.
For Agha, it is an opportunity disguised as a crisis. Captains are rarely given the luxury of a gentle introduction, and there will be no gentle introduction here. If he can steer Pakistan through a hostile opening Test and keep the series alive for Babar’s return at Lord’s, he will have announced himself in a way few debutant Test captains ever manage.
For now, the focus is simple: survive the first morning, find a foothold in the match, and keep the door open. Pakistan’s tour of England, already a formidable assignment, has just become considerably harder.