Abdul Razzaq: “When Abdullah Shafique was playing, he was aggressive but when Babar came in to bat, he was stopping his shots, which means he got guidelines to not hit the shot. He tried to stop the ball or play a half-hearted shot”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq has accused ex-captain Babar Azam of stopping opening batsman Abdullah Shafique from playing aggressive cricket.
Shafique was one of the breakout stars during the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup as he was initially not part of the playing XI.
However, upon replacing Fakhar Zaman after the opening match against the Netherlands, the 24-year-old from Sialkot lit up the tournament and amassed 336 runs in eight games, which included a century and three fifties, at an average of 42.
With Shafique seen as a future superstar, Razzaq questioned whether Azam had forced him to limit his attacking shots.
“When Abdullah Shafique was playing, he was aggressive but when Babar came in to bat, he was stopping his shots, which means he got guidelines to not hit the shot. He tried to stop the ball or play a half-hearted shot,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam, who stepped down as Pakistan captain in all three formats after the World Cup, scored 320 runs in nine games, which included four half-centuries, at an average of 40.
The men in green started off with wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before stumbling against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite fighting back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they failed to progress to the semi-finals.
Pakistan ended their campaign on a sour note as England thumped them by 93 runs.
Azam and Shafique will now represent Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which will begin on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi
[TS_Poll id=”31″]
Squad 4 test cricket is nothing but rubbish,can any body justify selection of Mir Humza,Aamar Jamal,Khurram Shahzad and Saim Ayub in place of Shadab,M.Haris,Iftikhar Ahmed or even Fakha.
Wajahatullah Jafri
wuj12@hotmail.com