Pakistan team captain Babar Azam has not fully recovered from his thumbinjury and has been ruled out of the 2nd Test against New Zealand scheduledto begin on Sunday, January 3.

Babar was expected to return to full fitness before the start of the 2ndTest match but he reported discomfort in his hand during the trainingsession, the team management has decided against playing him, afraid ofaggravating the injury.

Babar was initially ruled out of the T20I series after he fractured histhumb during a practice session, the management was hopeful of hisinclusion in the first Test, but he was subsequently ruled out as thefracture hadn’t healed.——————————

Wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan has been named as the captain for thesecond Test as well.

The team’s doctor Sohail Saleem said that the medical team is constantlyreviewing Babar’s injury and expect him to be fully fit for the upcomingseries against South Africa.——————————

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“We have seen improvement in Babar Azam’s injury but he is yet to fullyrecover. He is our captain and the most important batsman in the lineup, sowe do not want to take any risk,” Saleem said.

Here’s the Pakistan squad for the second Test against New Zealand:

Mohammad Rizwan (captain, wicketkeeper), Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, FaheemAshraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Butt, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah,Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan, Yasir Shahand Zafar Gohar