Pakistan have downgraded the central contracts of Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Test captain Shan Masood.

Babar and Rizwan, left out of the squad for the T20 international Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates from September 9-28, have been relegated from the A band of deals to category B.

Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson recently said Babar, who has not played a T20I since December 2024, “had been asked to improve in some areas around taking on spin and in terms of his strike rate.”

No players have been placed in the A category in a set of contracts that run until June 30, 2026.

Masood has dropped from band B to the lowest tier in band D after Pakistan finished bottom of the 2023-25 World Test Championship.

Masood steered his nation to a 2-1 victory over England last October but they were then subsequently beaten 2-0 in South Africa before drawing 1-1 at home to West Indies.

The left-hander’s record as Test skipper reads played 12, won three, lost nine.

Seam bowler Naseem Shah has dropped from category B to category C, although the upgrades from C to B include leg-spinners Shadab Khan and Abrar Ahmed and fast bowler Haris Rauf.

Category B: Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Category C: Abdullah Shafique, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Sahibzada Farhan, Sajid Khan, Saud Shakeel

Category D: Ahmed Daniyal, Hussain Talat, Khurram Shahzad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Salman Mirza, Shan Masood, Sufiyan Muqeem