Pakistan Cricket Board downgrades contracts for Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistan Cricket Board has downgraded deals for Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in the latest list of 30 centrally contracted players announced on Tuesday.

Both Babar and Rizwan were in category A but have been relegated to join Abrar Ahmed, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan and Shaheen Shah Afridi in category B.

The PCB didn’t contract any players at the highest level, instead selecting 10 players in each of the B, C and D categories.

Pakistan’s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson said last weekend that Babar needed to work on his strike-rate and playing against spin in the T20 format. Selectors yet again ignored both Babar and Rizwan in the Pakistan T20 squad for an upcoming tri-series and the Asia Cup.

Pakistan finished at the bottom of the ICC World Test Championship and the PCB has demoted its test captain Shan Masood from category B to category D.

Fast bowler Naseem Shah, who was also dropped for the upcoming T20 tournaments in the United Arab Emirates, was dropped from the second tier to the third tier of contracted players.

Wickekeeper-batter Usman Khan, who chose to play for Pakistan over the UAE, was among the eight international players who didn’t get a central contract.

While some key Pakistan cricketers were demoted, legspinner Ahmed, fast bowler Rauf, opening batter Ayub, T20 captain Agha and legspinner Shadab Khan were all upgraded from C to B category contracts.

The contracts run through June 30, 2026.

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Category B: Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Category C: Abdullah Shafique, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Sahibzada Farhan, Sajid Khan and Saud Shakeel

Category D: Ahmed Daniyal, Hussain Talat, Khurram Shahzad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Salman Mirza, Shan Masood and Sufiyan Muqeem.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket