Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf demoted in Pakistan Central Contracts, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan remain ‘A’ players

Afridi was dropped after the first Test against Bangladesh and the first Test against England. Shaheen was also made the captain after the 2023 ODI World Cup however, was stripped of it after one series loss against New Zealand.

Haris Rauf on the other hand has refused to play the series Test against Australia in December 2023 when his central contract was terminated initially and was restored later. He later was also given NOC to play Big Bash League.

Other highlights

The talisman Babar Azam and wicket-keeper Mohammed Rizwan continue to remain A category players and Test skipper Shan Masood was promoted from D to B.

Category A: Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan

Category B: Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood

Category C: Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel and Shadab Khan

Category D: Aamir Jamal, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Hurraira, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr and Usman Khan

Who missed out?

Notebaly Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq who have been regulars recently and were B category players are completely omitted from the Central Contracts.

Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shahnawaz Dahani, Faheem Ashraf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Ihsanullah, Mohammad Haris, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Usama Mir and Zaman Khan who were D contracted players last year are now out of contracts.