Babar Azam Nears Pakistan Return for Lord's Test

LONDON — For five days after Headingley, Pakistan cricket had the same conversation on repeat in drawing rooms from Lahore to Lord's: would it have been different with Babar?

We're about to find out.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam is expected to return to the playing XI for the second Test against England, which begins at Lord's on Thursday, 27 August. The 31-year-old batted through a full session in the nets on Tuesday — facing pace, spin and throwdowns without any sign of trouble — and the mood in the Pakistan camp shifted noticeably afterwards.

Bowling coach Umar Gul delivered the update the whole country was waiting on. Babar came through the session in good touch, Gul said, and the management is hopeful he'll be available for the match. A final team sheet had not been issued at publication time. The net session and the coaching staff's optimism are strong signs, but his selection remains subject to Pakistan's final fitness assessment.

The finger that started it all

Babar's injury has been a slow-burning frustration rather than a single dramatic moment. He first hurt the finger during Pakistan's tour of the West Indies last month, played on through it, then took another blow on exactly the same finger during the warm-up fixture at Beckenham. That second hit was the one that ruled him out of the series opener at Headingley.

The timing could hardly have been crueller. Babar was Pakistan's leading run-scorer in the Caribbean — 193 runs including two half-centuries — and arrived in England batting with the kind of certainty that had gone missing from his game for a while. Then a fielding drill took it away.

What Pakistan looked like without him

Grim. There is no diplomatic version of this.

England won the first Test by an innings and 103 runs, and it was done and dusted inside three days. Pakistan were bowled out for 171 and then 135. Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue took eight wickets each across the match, Jofra Archer chipped in with three, and Harry Brook began his Test captaincy with a commanding home victory.

Put brutally: England needed under 86 overs to dismiss Pakistan twice. In the history of Pakistan Test cricket, only four completed matches have gone by faster with the bat. Abdullah Shafique's 61 in the first innings was the lone score of any real substance.

Salman Ali Agha, who stood in as captain in Babar's absence, was handed a losing hand and never got near a winning one.

Why the numbers say Lord's suits him

Here is where the optimism actually has some evidence behind it, rather than just hope.

Babar averages *53.83 against England across 14 Test innings, and in half of those innings he has walked off with either a fifty or a hundred. In England specifically, his record is even better — 65.75*, with three half-centuries from six innings. He is one of the few batters in this Pakistan side with a genuinely proven method against the moving ball in these conditions.

Lord's, historically, rewards exactly the qualities Babar has and Pakistan lacked at Headingley: patience, a still head, and the willingness to leave the ball for an hour if that's what the morning demands.

The XI is about to get shuffled

Babar's return sets off a chain reaction at the top of the order.

The likeliest outcome: Azan Awais makes way, one of Shan Masood or Abdullah Shafique moves up to open, and Babar slots in at No. 4. There has also been talk of a second spinner if the Lord's surface plays as dry and slow as forecast, and of managing Mohammad Rizwan's workload — though Pakistan dropping their keeper after a heavy defeat would be a bold call by any standard.

Leadership reverts to Babar, with Salman Ali Agha stepping back into the ranks.

Gul's warning: don't hand him the whole load

To his credit, Umar Gul refused to let Babar's return become a comfort blanket for everyone else. Pakistan lost that first Test in every department, he pointed out, and one player carrying another is not a plan. In English conditions, he argued, the greater responsibility actually sits with the bowlers — because until you take twenty wickets, you don't win a Test match, no matter who is batting at four.

He also said the squad trained with real intensity at Lord's and backed them to bounce back.

What's actually at stake

Everything, more or less.

Pakistan trail 0-1 in a three-match series, with the finale at Edgbaston on 9 September. Lose at Lord's and the series is gone, along with valuable ground in the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle. Win, and a tour that looked finished after three days at Headingley is suddenly alive again.

Pakistan haven't won a Test series in England since 1996 — the Wasim and Waqar era, a generation of fans ago.

Babar Azam alone won't rewrite thirty years of history in five days at Lord's. But Thursday morning, when he walks down those famous pavilion steps for the first time this series, it will feel like Pakistan have a pulse again.

Second Test: England vs Pakistan, Lord's, 27–31 August, 11:00 BST (3:00 PM PKT).