LAHORE – Pakistan are set to take on South Africa in the first of the two-Test match series commencing on Sunday, 12 October, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore as trophy has been unveiled at the National Cricket Academy.
The second Test will be played at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium from 20 to 24 October. The Test matches are part of the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 and will be followed by six white-ball matches (three T20Is and three ODIs) between the two sides from 28 October to 8 November.
The Test series marks the start of a new cycle for the Pakistan Men’s team in the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 and their first opponents are South Africa – the champions of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25.
This will also be the first occasion since the inception of the ICC World Test Championship in 2019 that Pakistan will be playing their opening series of a WTC cycle at home. In the 2019-21 WTC, they began the cycle with an away tour to Australia, while in 2021-23 they began the Championship with a tour of the West Indies. In the previous 2023-25 cycle, Pakistan started their campaign with a tour of Sri Lanka.
In head-to-head encounters, Pakistan have played 30 Test matches against South Africa, winning six, while South Africa have been victorious on 17 occasions and seven matches have ended in a draw. In 13 Test matches (nine in Pakistan and four in the UAE) between the two teams, Pakistan have won four, South Africa three, while six Tests have ended in draws.
In World Test Championship matches, both sides have played four Tests, winning two each. South Africa last toured Pakistan for two Tests in January–February 2021, which the hosts won 2-0. For Pakistan in the WTC against South Africa, Babar Azam has scored 315 runs in four Tests, including four half-centuries, while Mohammad Rizwan has scored 283 runs in four Tests, including a century.
In the bowling department, Hasan Ali has taken 12 wickets in two ICC World Test Championship matches against South Africa. All three players are part of the 16-member squad for the forthcoming Test series.
Pakistan Squad
Shan Masood (captain), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Asif Afridi, Babar Azam, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Noman Ali, Rohail Nazir (wicket-keeper), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afrid
