Imam-ul-Haq is back at the top of Pakistan’s order, recalled to replace Abdullah Fazal for the first Test against West Indies in Tarouba. He walks in alongside Azan Awais, restoring the opening pairing Pakistan used before Fazal’s rapid rise up the order. Fazal’s exit came after a training-ground back injury just three days out from the toss, pushing selectors toward experience over the uncapped middle-order options waiting behind him. The change reshapes Pakistan’s top six and puts real weight on Imam’s next innings in Trinidad.
Imam-ul-Haq Locks In as Pakistan’s Opener
Pakistan have confirmed their top order for the first Test at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, and Imam-ul-Haq slots straight back in alongside Azan Awais. It is the same pairing the team leaned on before Fazal’s rapid rise through the order earlier this year, and it returns now out of necessity rather than choice.
Awais Zafar remains in the picture as a middle-order option and briefly entered contention for a Test debut at number five once Fazal’s scan results came back. Pakistan chose to stick with senior batting at the top of the order instead, keeping faith in Imam and Azan Awais to see off the new ball together in Trinidad. Their partnership has history behind it, and selectors clearly valued that familiarity over handing out a fresh cap in a series opener that already carries enough uncertainty.
Abdullah Fazal Injury Pakistan West Indies Test
Fazal picked up an acute lower back injury during a training session at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy Ground three days before the first Test. An MRI scan and clinical assessment led the team medical panel to confirm he would need a period of rehabilitation, though no firm recovery timeline has been given publicly.
The injury rules the 23-year-old out of both the two-Test series against West Indies and the subsequent England tour in August and September. It is a rough turn for a batter who had scored an unbeaten fifty in each innings of the warm-up fixture against a West Indies Select XI just days earlier. Babar Azam spoke warmly about Fazal after the news broke, calling him a hugely talented batter whose confidence had been soaring since his own debut series went so well.
Imam’s Test Pedigree Coming Into This Series
Imam-ul-Haq has not played a Test since May, when he made an important first-innings contribution in a Dhaka partnership with Azan Awais worth over a hundred runs, before missing the second Test in Sylhet entirely while Fazal opened instead. His most recent big score away from home came against South Africa last October, when he made 93 in Lahore on a testing pitch against a strong attack.
His numbers away from the international stage stand out too. He racked up 823 runs at an average past 68 in the last domestic season, including a career-best knock past 300 in the Hanif Mohammad Trophy for Multan Region. Across 26 Tests he averages 37 overall, with his second innings figures consistently stronger than his first innings returns, a split worth watching once Pakistan are asked to bat last on a Caribbean surface that tends to wear as the match goes on.
Pakistan’s Reshuffled Batting Order for Tarouba
The confirmed XI reads Azan Awais, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Babar Azam as captain, Mohammad Rizwan behind the stumps, Salman Ali Agha, Aamer Jamal, Ali Usman, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Abbas. Ali Usman’s inclusion stands out on its own, with the left-arm spinner handed a debut cap that suggests Pakistan expect a slower, flatter surface than usual in Trinidad, a call that says as much about the pitch as it does about the batting reshuffle above him.
Saud Shakeel misses out entirely because of ongoing fitness concerns, leaving the squad thinner on specialist batting cover than the management would like. Zafar’s own warm-up form, an unbeaten 128 in the tour match, ultimately was not enough to force his way into a side reshaped by exactly the kind of last-minute setback that defines this Abdullah Fazal injury Pakistan West Indies Test build-up, with Sajid Khan and wicketkeeper Muhammad Ghazi Ghori also named among the reserves for the wider tour party.