Salman Butt: “His fitness is always going to be under the scanner. I think he has to decide on his career. He should work on his fitness, otherwise, it is going to be very difficult for him to play”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has conceded that wicketkeeper-batsman Azam Khan needs to make career-related decisions going forward.
Providing more context, Salman noted that it will be “very difficult” for Azam to keep getting picked if he does not improve his fitness.
The 25-year-old, who is the son of former Pakistan skipper Moin Khan, has repeatedly been criticised for being overweight. In addition to this, he has done himself no favours with his performances as he has struggled to score runs since making his international debut in July 2021.
Azam has featured in 14 T20Is to date and mustered 88 runs at an average of 8.80 and a strike-rate of 133.33.
In the 2024 T20 World Cup, he failed to have an impact at all as he was dismissed for a golden duck in Pakistan’s opening match against the United States of America, which was the only game he played.
“His fitness is always going to be under the scanner. I think he has to decide on his career. He should work on his fitness, otherwise, it is going to be very difficult for him to play,” Salman said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan lost to the United States of America and India before picking up wins over Canada and Ireland.
Despite this, they were eliminated in the group stage of the tournament.
Pakistan Squad for 2024 T20 World Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abbas Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
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