Aamer Jamal's back issues rule him out of Bangladesh Test series

Pakistan fast-bowling allrounder Aamer Jamal will miss the two-Test series against Bangladesh, the PCB confirmed on Monday.

Two days out of the series opener in Rawalpindi, Pakistan announced their XI, with Saim Ayub , the incumbent opener, retaining his place at the top after having made his Test debut against Australia at the SCG in January earlier this year . The selectors picked Ayub for continuity, which meant Muhammad Hurraira will have to wait for his international debut.

Hurraira, 22, has been a heavy scorer in domestic cricket and last month he scored 218 against a Bangladesh High Performance XI in a four-day game in Darwin .

Saud Shakeel was named vice-captain while Naseem Shah was also back in the XI for his first Test match since July 2023 .

As for Jamal, he was initially selected in the squad with his participation subject to fitness clearance. He was most likely going to miss the first Test, starting on August 21 in Rawalpindi, as he hadn't completely recovered from his back injury, but is now ruled out of the second Test starting August 30 as well.

Jamal, who was Pakistan's highest wicket-taker in the away series in Australia in 2023-24 with 18 wickets in three Tests , has been dealing with lower back issues since May this year. The injury also affected and ultimately curtailed his multi-format stint with Warwickshire in England, and he last played competitive cricket in June.

Jamal was originally the lone seam-bowling allrounder in the squad, and with no replacement named, Pakistan will go into the first Test with 14 players since Abrar Ahmed and Kamran Ghulam were also released to play for the Shaheens. Pakistan are also expected to name an all-seam attack for the first Test and the other quicks in the squad are Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Mir Hamza, Khurram Shahzad and Mohammad Ali.

Jamal will now work on his fitness at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore with one eye on regaining fitness before the Test series against England in October.

Pakistan XI for the first Test against Bangladesh

1 Abdullah Shafique, 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Shan Masood (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Saud Shakeel (vice-capt), 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Salman Ali Agha, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Khurram Shahzad, 11 Mohammad Ali

1.30pm GMT: The story was updated after Pakistan announced their XI