Pakistan Test captain Babar Azam will play in the country’s domestic red-ball circuit for the first time since 2019, turning out for Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) in the ongoing President’s Trophy Grade-I.
The department’s sports head, Farah Batool, confirmed the move to a private media outlet on Monday.
“Babar will arrive back in Pakistan from the UK on Sept 16 and will join the OGDCL squad the next day,” Farah said. “His kit has been ordered.”
His last first-class appearance in domestic cricket came on Dec 30, 2019, when he captained Central Punjab to the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy title with an innings-and-16-run win over Northern in the final.
OGDCL are playing Pakistan Television in their President’s Trophy opener in Islamabad. They travel to Peshawar to meet Kingsmen Academy from Sept 18 and then face Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) from Sept 24.
“Babar will decide upon his arrival if he plays from the second match or the third match,” Farah said.
According to reports, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) offered Babar to OGDCL as a guest player. The arrangement follows the board’s recent push to get established internationals back into domestic first-class cricket. One-day International captain Shaheen Shah Afridi is representing KRL in the same competition, while T20I skipper Salman Ali Agha is playing for Kingsmen Academy.
Babar has drawn criticism for years over his distance from the domestic red-ball game during the period in which he established himself as one of Pakistan’s leading batters.
He returned to the Test captaincy in July and has since led the side to a 1-1 draw against the West Indies and a 3-0 whitewash of England. The West Indies tour brought signs of a revival, with Babar topping the batting charts with 196 runs in two matches to claim the player-of-the-series award.
The England series told a different story. He missed the opening Test through injury and then made eight, six, seven and 76 in his four innings. He has not scored a Test century in the past four years.
