Pakistan have dropped Babar Azam and Saim Ayub from its ODI squad for the upcoming three-match series away in Bangladesh, which begins on March 11. Six uncapped players find mention in the team, indicating that the Pakistan Cricket Board has hit the overhaul button after the 2026 T20 World Cup flop show.
Sahibzada Farhan, Pakistan’s highest run-scorer and by far the best player in the World Cup is the most notable among them, and looks set to make his ODI debut. Abdul Samad, Maaz Sadaqat, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori, Saad Masood, Shamyl Hussain are the other new names — all played against England Lions for Pakistan Shaheens in Abu Dhabi.
The inclusion of Ghazi Ghori adds another wicketkeeping option alongside Mohammad Rizwan, who continues in the squad as the primary gloveman.
Apart from Babar and Ayub, four huge omissions from the ODI squad that took on Sri Lanka in the last 50-over series in 2025 are Fakhar Zaman, Haseebullah, Mohammad Nawaz and pacer Naseem Shah. Shaheen Shah Afridi remains captain, while core players such as Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Hussain Talat, Mohammad Wasim Jnr and Salman Ali Agha have retained their spots.
Babar and Ayub have clearly faced the brunt of their poor performances at the T20 World Cup. It was a different format, but the writing was on the wall when they were snubbed from the team’s final Super Eights match against Sri Lanka, where they could restrict the co-hosts to 147 needed for a semi-final entry.
It’s a damning one for Babar, once the country’s first name on the sheet across formats. His T20I form has been abhorrent for quite some time now, with the right-hander struggling to adjust to the modern demands of the game. But ODIs are arguably his best format — he even scored a century in the aforementioned Sri Lanka series — and he’d feel that hard done by the decision.
