Shoaib Malik on Babar Azam: “I haven’t put pressure on him, nor [will] I ever try and convince him [to select me]”

Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani

Senior Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik has made it abundantly clear that he will never put pressure on captain Babar Azam to select him in the national team.

Malik has not played for his country since November 2021 and wasn’t included in the squad for the 2022 T20 World Cup.

The 40-year-old recently played in the National T20 Cup, where he scored 204 runs in nine matches for Central Punjab, which included two fifties, at an average of 29.14 and a strike-rate of 140.68.

Despite his solid campaign and being a potential answer to Pakistan’s middle order woes, he reiterated that he will not force Azam to give him another chance at the international level.

“We have been in touch consistently. Yes, earlier, we used to talk more, but now he is a skipper and one should give him that space. I have also gone through this and I haven’t put pressure on him, nor [will] I ever try and convince him [to select me],” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.

Pakistan start their 2022 T20 World Cup campaign against India on October 23 in Melbourne.

Pakistan’s 2022 T20 World Cup squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood

Reserves: Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir

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