Mohammad Yousuf: “I watched the press conference very carefully, in which Babar looked very worried, I heard that he was crying”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Newly-appointed Pakistan Under-19 head coach Mohammad Yousuf revealed he heard former captain Babar Azam was crying after his side lost to Afghanistan in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
He added that the 29-year-old “looked very worried”, which may have been a sign of things to come as Azam stepped down as captain in all three formats after the men in green were eliminated from the tournament.
The Lahore-born batsman had not been in the best of form heading into the World Cup, but found some consistency in the nine matches he played as he scored 320 runs, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
“I watched the press conference very carefully, in which Babar looked very worried, I heard that he was crying,” Yousuf was quoted as saying by Geo Super.
Pakistan began by beating the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before stumbling against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Even though they fought back to take down Bangladesh and New Zealand, they failed to advance to the semi-finals.
The men in green concluded their campaign on a sour note as England pummelled them by 93 runs.
Azam will now represent Pakistan in their upcoming three-match Test series against Australia, which will start 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
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