Imam-ul-Haq and Bilal Asif recalled; Imran Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani and Haris Rauf left out; Yasir Shah out injured
Ghulam, who hails from Upper Dir in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, surpassed the record of Saadat Ali, who scored 1217 runs during the 1983-84 season of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. He was picked among the players who were part of a training camp ahead of the home Test series against South Africa earlier this year, but wasn’t considered for the final squad of 15, and also ignored for the tours of Zimbabwe and West Indies. But he was kept close to the senior set-up and selected in the Shaheens squad, and he impressed with scores of 58* and 45 in the unofficial Tests against Sri Lanka A.
Asif has been brought back to fill in for the injured Yasir. Imam, meanwhile, has been in rich form during the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, scoring 162.66 in five innings at an average of 162.66, with two hundreds including a double-ton. He was part of Pakistan’s Test squad until late last year, when he was ruled out of the tour of New Zealand with a thumb injury. Since then he had been overlooked for selection, with Imran Butt given opportunities to establish himself as opener.
Butt played six straight Test matches, but his poor returns put his place under pressure. He made 91 against Zimbabwe in Harare, but he has crossed 15 only once in his nine other Test innings, and he currently averages 17.80. Ex-head coach Misbah ul Haq persisted with him, making a case that players need a longer run to overcome insecurity about their place and begin to express themselves, but following the change in the coaching set-up, Butt has fallen out of favour, despite having scored two hundreds and a 95 in the ongoing first-class season. He holds an emerging-category contract with the PCB, however, and was the leading run-getter in the 2019-20 season.
More to follow…
Umar Farooq is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent