Zaheer Abbas, a renowned batter from Pakistan, has called for the exclusion of national white-ball skipper Babar Azam from the team due to his recent poor performance.
Babar has been under intense criticism because of his recent poor performances, the most notable of which being his disastrous performance in the two-match home Test series against Bangladesh.
After a lackluster home series against Bangladesh in which he scored 64 runs in four innings, he fell out of the top ten in the ICC Test Batting Rankings.
In December 2022, he scored a marathon 161 runs against New Zealand in red-ball cricket, which was the last time he had scored 50 runs. After that, in July 2023, he played 16 innings and achieved a top score of 39 against Sri Lanka.
Due to his poor performances, Zaheer Abbas questioned his position on the team during an appearance on a sports talk show in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Babar Azam ought to be removed from the team,” stated Abbas. “He should be removed from the team if he isn’t producing runs, as he is our primary batsman and is struggling.”
But, the Pakistani team management has endorsed the great batsman for the forthcoming Test series against England, which begins in Multan on October 7.
Shan Masood, vice-captain of Pakistan, Saud Shakeel, Abrar Ahmed, Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicket-keeper), and Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Zahid Mehmood are the players that will represent Pakistan in their first Test match against England.
