I don't think a decision is necessary. Obviously Malik and Hafeez will have to perform out of their skins to hold down a place now that we have three very good batsmen in the side that their numbers have to stack up against.
Hafeez seems like a player on the wane, and simply just feels altogether a bit average now. His contribution isn't as high as it was even if he was making a few less runs with the bat on average, preferred when he could be relied on to bowl 10 overs, the whole point of him was the fact he could make it in batsman or bowler, and didn't sacrifice the place of a batsman for a bowler. Was a great utility player/allrounder for us, now he's just merely an average batsman. He's nothing more than a part timer now, and even that he's a bit unreliable. Not to mention he looks shaky as a batsman, reflexes down, I'm not sure I expect him to hold down his place with the bat.
Malik coming back to the team 2 years ago with time not on his side had to perform from the word go. Seems to have done that average wise, but bit disappointed he failed when it mattered in CT, and I'm not sure we can rely on his bowling either (though he was never the standard Hafeez was with the ball). When guys like Babar are averaging 50, he'll have to keep those numbers up. The comforting things about him is that he looks in form at the crease unlike Hafeez, and he had decent series against Australia and England which was encouraging. I get the calls for people wanting him dropped given he was an average bat for most of his career, however if he can perform to the level he's performed last two years or so against strong sides and ideally in tournaments too not like this one where he failed, he could be worth a shot.
Hand on my heart if I have to choose, I have more faith in Malik being an asset in 2019 than Hafeez despite Hafeez being a far more integral player to our side since 2009.
Atm though they probably aren't the first people I'd cut from the side, the first would be Azhar dropped for Haris. This whole thing of having an anchor we've tried it before and it's failed (with Azhar himself lol). If you can't play your shots and accelerate in LOI, it just doesn't work. Guys like Babar (and Haris if he comes back) perform the same role but score more consistently at a faster pace. When you need to score at SR of 70 Azhar's great, he negotiates difficult conditions/new ball better than anyone else, but more often than not we need to score faster than that, and we can not plan our batting based around the reliance for the bowling to always bottle out the team for low scores. Just not a positive LOI batting approach and will never lead to a development of a strong batting side. I hoped Azhar might be able to add more value as a bowler, perhaps even relied to bowl 10 overs, but that doesn't seem the case, don't think he qualifies as even part time anymore, and is probably our 8th choice in a team of 11 in terms of go to guys to bowl.
