Babar Azam returns to Pakistan's domestic first class cricket desperate to find form

Pakistan’s Test captain Babar Azam has returned to domestic cricket to find form amid his prolonged lean patch in the longest format. Babar will be seen playing for the Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) in the ongoing President's Trophy Grade 1 first-class tournament.

He has been signed as a guest player after requesting the PCB to place him in the squad so he could stay in touch with red-ball cricket, according to Cricinfo. Babar has not scored a century in Test cricket since December 2022.

His last hundred came against New Zealand in Karachi, when he scored 161 in a drawn game. Since then, he has batted 40 innings in the longest format, scoring 1140 runs at an average of 30, 12.98 runs lower than his career average in the format.

He has scored only eight half-centuries in this period, and four of them have been in his last five Tests. His top score since his last Test century has been 88, which came in a winning cause during the second Test against West Indies in August.

Babar’s poor form has been a hot topic of discussion in Pakistan’s cricketing circles, with former batter Mohamad Yousuf publicly addressing the chinks in his armour. He was again seen struggling in the recent series in England, with fast bowlers exploiting his weakness against the short balls.

Babar's poor show in England

After registering scores of 6, 8 and 7 in the first three innings, Babar managed to save some face, scoring 76 in his last innings of the series, albeit in a losing cause as Pakistan were whitewashed 3-0.

Babar has stayed away from domestic first-class cricket as he wasn’t named in any of the eight teams when the PCB announced the squads for this season's President's Trophy and President's Cup last week.

His last appearance in a domestic first-class tournament came in 2019, when he led the now-defunct Central Punjab team to victory against Northern in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final. That was also the only season after 2015 when Babar played more than one domestic first-class match in a season.

Afridi and Agha also set to play domestic cricket

Apart from Babar, several prominent Pakistani players will be seen playing in the President's Trophy this season, including Shaheen Shah Afridi and Salman Agha.

There has been widespread criticism of Pakistan players, especially bowlers not playing often in domestic first-class tournaments. Pakistan have been enduring a poor run in Test cricket and ICC tournaments in recent years.

The PCB central contracts mandate players in categories A (Test specialists) and AB (Test and ODI specialists) to play at least six and four first-class matches, respectively, in a year. On the other hand, players in the BC category, which is for white-ball specialists (ODI and T20I), are required to play at least two first-class matches.

Pakistan are ranked ninth in the ICC Test rankings and are also reeling at the bottom of the World Test Championship table for the 2025-27 cycle, just like last edition. They have also failed to reach the knockouts of the last four ICC tournaments and were knocked out of the home Champions Trophy in 2025 in the first stage itself within five days.