Kamran Akmal: “Babar made his name through his performance. Now, Babar needs to perform, or else he might lose his place in the Test team”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal has warned limited overs captain Babar Azam that his place in the Test team is no longer safe following a string of underwhelming performances.
Azam’s last Test century came against New Zealand in December 2022. Since then, he hasn’t even been able to cross the 50-run mark.
Recently, the 29-year-old featured in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh and failed to have an impact as he mustered 64 runs at an average of 16.
Akmal acknowledged that the “pressure is increasing” on Azam and admitted that there seems to be a problem with his technique as he isn’t scoring runs like he used to.
“There’s a difference in his technique because his performance isn’t up to the mark, and the pressure is increasing. He needs to fix these small things because this isn’t Babar’s standard. Babar made his name through his performance. Now, Babar needs to perform, or else he might lose his place in the Test team,” he told Cricket Pakistan.
Azam is currently representing the Stallions in the Champions One-Day Cup, which is a domestic 50-over competition being held in Faisalabad.
The Lahore native seems to be getting back to his best in the tournament as he has accumulated 225 runs in three matches, which includes a century and a fifty, at an average of 112.50.
Following the Champions One-Day Cup, Pakistan will face England in a three-match Test series from October 7 to 28.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Hurraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Shaheen Shah Afridi
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