Mohammad Hafeez: “Babar Azam is not the first one to bat at No. 3 in T20I cricket. Players did it before him and will do [it] after him too. It’s not about his comfort, it’s about what the team demands from him. You have to do it for the country”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan team director and interim head coach Mohammad Hafeez said Babar Azam should continue batting at number three in T20Is even though he is upset about it.
Azam expressed his dissatisfaction towards being pushed out as an opener and made to bat at one down.
Hafeez noted that the 29-year-old needs to make this sacrifice as he needs to do what’s best for the team.
“Babar Azam is not the first one to bat at No. 3 in T20I cricket. Players did it before him and will do [it] after him too. It’s not about his comfort, it’s about what the team demands from him. You have to do it for the country,” he was quoted as saying by journalist Farid Khan on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Azam recently captained the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and finished as the highest run-scorer in the tournament with 569 runs in 11 matches, which included a century and five fifties, at an average of 56.90 and a strike-rate of 142.60.
The Zalmi progressed to the playoffs, but were dumped out after losing to the Multan Sultans in the Qualifier and Islamabad United in Eliminator 2.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 9:Â Babar Azam (captain), Rovman Powell, Saim Ayub, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Asif Ali, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Naveen-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Salman Irshad, Arif Yaqoob, Umair Afridi, Dan Mousley, Haseebullah Khan, Mohammad Zeeshan, Mehran Mumtaz, Luke Wood, Sufiyan Muqeem, Waqar Salamkheil, Arshad Iqbal, Gus Atkinson, Shamar Joseph