Pakistan has included four debutants in the line-up for the first match of the historic Test series against England. This is the first time in history that four Pakistani players will make their Test debut against England.
Haris Rauf, Zahid Mehmood, Saud Shakeel, and Mohammad Ali are the latest players to earn their Test caps for Pakistan, which brings the total number of players to play a Test match for Pakistan to 251 since the team’s first match in 1952.
The last time Pakistan handed debuts to four players in the same match was 19 years ago as Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Gul, Shabbir Ahmed, and Yasir Hameed made their debuts in the first Test match against Bangladesh at Karachi in 2003.
Just three years prior, Pakistan handed debuts to Misbah-ul-Haq, Faisal Iqbal, Imran Farhat, and Mohammad Sami against New Zealand in the first Test at Auckland.
Since 2020, Pakistan has handed debuts to a total of 11 players, including four players in the ongoing Test match. Zafar Gohar, Imran Butt, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Tabish Khan, Abdullah Shafique, and Salman Ali Agha are the other seven players to debut for the national team over the past two years.
Pakistan will be hoping that the new players are able to make an instant impact in the first Test match and help Pakistan register a win as they look to qualify for the World Test Championship final.
