Imad Wasim: “We never said to remove Babar completely, we only suggested to come down the order”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan left-arm spinner Imad Wasim believes star batsman Babar Azam should be demoted down the order in T20Is rather than be dropped completely.
Azam currently opens the batting with Mohammad Rizwan in the shortest format, but both of them have come under immense criticism for taking too long to score their runs.
This, according to their critics, puts a lot of pressure on the middle order to pick up the slack.
Imad feels that Azam will be more useful a little lower down the batting line-up as he can stabilise things should the men in green have a top order collapse.
“We never said to remove Babar completely, we only suggested to come down the order. He plays spinners and pacers well,” he was quoted as saying by Geo Super.
Azam stepped down as captain in all three formats after Pakistan were eliminated from the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he amassed 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
The 29-year-old is now in action in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against Australia and made scores of 21 and 14 in the first Test in Perth, which the men in green lost by 360 runs.
The second Test will start on December 26 in Melbourne.
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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