ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided not to include Pakistan One Day Internationals (ODI) captain Shaheen Shah Afridi in the national Test squad camp, according to the official sources.
According to the officials, the PCB has invited 49 players to a training camp in Lahore, including 22 players for the red-ball (Test) format and 27 players for the white-ball (ODI and T20) squads.
The white-ball camp will run till 18th September, whereas the red-ball camp will run till 10th July. The camp for the West Indies tour will run separately, and the training will commence on 15th July.
Sources revealed that PCB think tank decided not to include Shaheen Afridi in the Test camp, whereas included in the white ball camp, and it is expected he will report for camp from June 15.
Shaheen, aged 26, made his test debut against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi in December 2017. In the last test outing, he played against Bangladesh at Mirpur in May 2026 and bagged 126 wickets in 34 Test matches.
In the last test, Pakistan was defeated by Bangladesh by 104 runs, whereas Shaheen took 3 for 113 in the first innings and 2 for 54 in the second innings. After that series, she rested for the subsequent Test in Sylhet, in which Khurram Shahzad made his debut in the playing eleven.
The issue about Shaheen’s bowling pace was questioned throughout the Bangladesh series. According to sources, his bowling speed during the Bangladesh series was not up to par with that he bowls in Domestic and franchise-level cricket.
Shaheen is regarded as bowling consistently at 140 kph plus speeds at the Pakistan Super League, but in this tour, his speed was noted at around 134 kph. Sources further revealed that the PCB has decided to review his limited participation in First Class cricket as the think tank believes that participation in test matches requires proper upkeep of performance levels in the longer format of cricket.
Accordingly, PCB thinks that Shaheen should be rested in the test matches in the immediate future, but should continue in the limited-overs cricket scheme.
