Mushtaq Ahmed: “Babar Azam will remember every single person who is there for him and who is not there for him. He [was] your captain, for God’s sake”
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Legendary Pakistan spinner Mushtaq Ahmed said Babar Azam will remember who was “there for him” and those who abandoned him.
This comes after Azam stepped down as captain following the team’s elimination from the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
During the tournament, the 29-year-old rediscovered some of his consistency with the bat as he scored 320 runs in nine matches, which included four half-centuries, at an average of 40.
“Babar Azam will remember every single person who is there for him and who is not there for him. He [was] your captain, for God’s sake. We also criticise people on our show, but it is never personal. We criticise them based on performances,” Mushtaq said on Samaa TV as quoted by NDTV.
Pakistan won their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite ending their four-game skid with consecutive victories over Bangladesh and New Zealand, they could not progress to the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their final group stage match against England by 93 runs.
Azam will now represent Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which gets underway 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