Pakistan found themselves seven down for 110 against the UAE before Shaheen Afridi lifted their score to 146 as their batting capitulations continued in the ongoing Asia Cup. Against India, too, Pakistan could muster just 127 runs after being 9/111 at one point.
Former Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur was surprised that Babar Azam wasn’t in this team’s T20I side, looking at the batting capitulations for the Men in Green in the ongoing Asia Cup. Pakistan found themselves seven down for 110 against the UAE on Wednesday before Shaheen Afridi lifted their score to 146. Against India, too, Pakistan could muster just 127 runs after being 9/111 at one point and there also Afridi was responsible for providing some respectability to their score.
“How Babar is not in this batting line up is totally beyond me,” Arthur exclaimed on X (formerly Twitter). However, the 57-year-old contradicting himself three weeks after finding both Babar and Mohammad Rizwan ‘not fit’ for modern T20 cricket was as much a reflection on the current T20I batting line-up for Pakistan as on the lack of modern-day white-ball pedigree in the country.
“Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are good players, but cricket has changed; they are not suitable for T20. T20 cricket today demands a very different approach. The kind of game Babar and Rizwan want to play requires personnel who can fully execute their vision — and right now, Pakistan needs different tools,” Arthur had said last month on ARY News after both Babar and Rizwan were left out of Pakistan’s squad for the Asia Cup.
Babar is the second-highest run-getter in T20Is, just behind former India captain Rohit Sharma. Babar’s career strike rate stands at 129, scoring 4,223 runs in 128 matches; however, his form of late was concerning for Pakistan.
Babar’s highest score in the last 10 innings in T20Is he played was 41, with three single-digit scores. The last fifty-plus score came for Babar in the Ireland series preceding last year’s T20 World Cup. Given the form of their current batters, Babar as an option does look exciting but Hesson doesn’t seem to be in favour of recalling either him or Rizwan, at least in the T20Is.
Hence, until then, Pakistan will have to make do with the Sahibzada Farhans, Saim Ayubs and Hassan Nawazs of the world and hope that they click in the upcoming games.