Ramiz Raja: “Babar seemed to be very frustrated and looked depressed. I felt really bad. The conversation regarding his captaincy was private, and I don’t want to make it public”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja admitted that star batsman Babar Azam “looked depressed” when he held a private chat with him during the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Ramiz didn’t divulge the details of what he and Azam spoke about, but confirmed that the 29-year-old “seemed to be very frustrated.”
Azam stepped down as captain in all three formats after the World Cup, where he rediscovered some consistency as he scored 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
“Babar seemed to be very frustrated and looked depressed. I felt really bad. The conversation regarding his captaincy was private, and I don’t want to make it public,” Ramiz was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan kicked things off with consecutive wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before stumbling against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite ending their four-game losing streak with back-to-back victories over Bangladesh and New Zealand, they could not make it to the semi-finals.
The men in green ended their campaign on a sour note as England hammered them by 93 runs.
Azam’s next assignment will be Pakistan’s upcoming 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