The Pakistan Cricket Board has named Sahibzada Farhan as the side's new T20I captain, replacing Salman Ali Agha, as part of the squads announced for the home series against Sri Lanka and the ODI tri-series that follows with England. Babar Azam has been left out of the T20I squad altogether, though he retains his place in the separate ODI group, where Shaheen Shah Afridi continues as captain.
Farhan's appointment follows his captaincy of Pakistan's side at the Asian Games, where the team won a silver medal after losing to India in the final. That stint, leading what was largely an inexperienced squad through a multi-sport event, was enough for selectors to hand him the full-time T20I captaincy ahead of a home summer that includes Sri Lanka this month and a heavier white-ball schedule beyond it.
Pakistan's 15-player group for the three-match series against Sri Lanka, starting October 9 in Rawalpindi, is: Sahibzada Farhan (c), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Arafat Minhas, Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Nawaz, Muhammad Imran Randhawa, Khawaja Nafay (wk), Maaz Sadaqat, Naseem Shah, Razaullah, Saim Ayub, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Shadab Khan and Sufiyan Moqim. Batter Hasan Nawaz and fast bowler Naseem Shah return to the T20I fold, while Razaullah — who made his Test debut against England — has been included across both the T20I and ODI squads.
Babar's omission from the T20I squad is the more striking selection call of the two, given his status as Pakistan's most-capped T20I batter. He has not been dropped outright from the white-ball set-up — his ODI squad place is intact — but the T20I exclusion suggests selectors see his immediate future in the format differently to the 50-over game, a separation that was not previously this explicit.
Beyond the captaincy change, this group of announcements covers a demanding stretch for Pakistan cricket: the T20Is against Sri Lanka from October 9, followed by the ODI tri-series involving England and Sri Lanka from October 18, and a two-Test series against Sri Lanka in November as part of the current World Test Championship cycle. How settled Farhan's captaincy looks will depend heavily on results across that full stretch rather than just the three games against Sri Lanka this week.
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Squad details and the captaincy change in this article are verified against same-day and freshly re-checked reporting from multiple outlets, current as of October 8, 2026.
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