Former captain Babar Azam and batter Usman Khan returned to the Pakistan XI as the side won the toss and opted to field in the first Twenty20 International against South Africa at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
Babar played his last T20I in December last year, while Usman featured in the format for Pakistan in March. The duo replaced Fakhar Zaman — who has opted out of the series to play first class cricket — and Mohammad Haris, whose low returns lately have concerned head coach Mike Hesson.
The series sees Pakistan continue their build-up to next year’s T20 World Cup after faring decently in their biggest test under Hesson at the Asia Cup last month — beating all sides they came up against except world number one and archrivals India, who handed them defeats in all three encounters including the final.
South Africa, in contrast, arrive as a depleted outfit on paper — the presence of star batter Quinton de Kock, featuring in a Twenty20 International for the first time since June 2024, standing out in a largely second-string squad led by Donovan Ferreira, who has just nine T20Is to his name.
Hence, Pakistan can be safely called favourites to take the series trophy, which would help restore their damaged confidence following the triple-drubbing from India.
The hosts too haven’t shied away from striking a balance between experimentation and experience, with Babar coming back.
“He’s a world-class player,” Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha said of Babar in the pre-series press conference on the eve of the match. “His presence always benefits the team. He’s played over a hundred T20s, led Pakistan many times, and scored heavily. His experience will strengthen our batting line-up.”
Pacer Naseem Shah, who missed both the tri-nation series and the Asia Cup, is also set to make his comeback. Uncapped spinner Usman Tariq and exciting middle-order batter Abdul Samad have been drafted in as part of Pakistan’s search for depth and flexibility ahead of the global showpiece next year.
“We were looking for a wicket-keeper-batter who can play in the middle order, especially against spin,” Salman said, defending Usman Khan’s inclusion over Haris. “Even though his international record isn’t great yet, you must’ve seen in the PSL that he bats well against spin in middle overs. We needed that kind of player who can both keep wickets and handle spin in that phase.”
Teams:
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Salman Ali Agha (captain, Usman Khan†, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed
South Africa: Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Tony de Zorzi, Dewald Brevis, Matthew Breetzke, Donovan Ferreira (captain), George Linde, Corbin Bosch, Lizaad Williams, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi
