Pakistan captain Babar Azam will miss the first Test against England starting on Wednesday at Headingley. He has been unable to shake off an injury to his right hand after being struck during Pakistan's warm-up game in Beckenham. It is the same hand he was struck on during the second Test against West Indies earlier this month.
"Pakistan captain Babar Azam is unavailable for the first Test match," Pakistan coach Sarfaraz Ahmed said. "Salman Agha will be the captain for the first Test."
Babar's absence is, for now, confined to the first Test, with Sarfaraz saying there was no fracture in the middle finger of his right hand.
"The medical team is assessing Babar. He has quite a bit of pain in the finger," Sarfaraz said. "There are still a few days to go before the second Test. Hopefully, he will recover by then."
Over the last few days, Pakistan had become increasingly pessimistic about Babar's chances of participating in the first Test. After being struck in Beckenham, he retired hurt and did not take the field for the remainder of the contest. Agha, who will be be standing in for Pakistan, captained in his stead.
Babar's absence will come as a huge blow for the visitors, particularly as he appeared to have been working his way back into form. He was the highest scorer in the series in the West Indies, where he struck two half-centuries and finished the second Test off with a pair of flamboyant sixes. He had only just been appointed captain before the West Indies tour.
Agha has never taken charge of a Pakistan Test side before, though he has, over the years, firmly embedded himself within the team's leadership group. He is one of a handful of regular starters in all three formats for Pakistan, and the current captain of the T20I side. However, Agha had a poor tour of the West Indies, where he scored 20 runs in three innings.
Sarfaraz said Babar's absence gave Pakistan a selection dilemma around how to add heft to their batting line-up. While Masood will slot into the top order and Saud Shakeel in the middle, there could be a temptation to add Aamer Jamal to the XI to shorten the tail. Pakistan did experiment with that move in the first Test against West Indies, but Jamal proved largely ineffective with both bat and ball.
But despite the injury setback, Sarfaraz said the team was positive about their prospects.
"Our practice match gave us a lot of confidence," he said. "Whatever bases we needed to cover with bat and ball, we did. We believe we'll do very well here."
Shan Masood, meanwhile, has fully recovered from a finger fracture of his own. He was struck on the hand by Jayden Seales in the first Test against West Indies last month. He subsequently went on to miss the second Test, and played no part in the warm-up game in Beckenham.