Nasser Hussain: “Their best player – a world-class player – Babar Azam is horrendously out of form”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former England captain Nasser Hussain has conceded that Pakistan batsman Babar Azam is “horrendously out of form” at the moment.
Azam has struggled to score runs consistently, with his last Test century having come against New Zealand in December 2022.
Surprisingly, that was also the last time he surpassed the 50-run mark in the longest format.
As for limited overs cricket, the 30-year-old’s last hundred in ODIs came against Nepal in August 2023, while in T20Is, it was against New Zealand in April 2023.
Hussain admitted that Azam’s Test form is particularly concerning and pointed out that the Lahore native is definitely under pressure to make some runs soon.
“Their best player – a world-class player – Babar Azam is horrendously out of form. It’s nine Test matches without a half century – on these pitches! Maybe that’s psychological, with everything that he’s been through, giving up the white-ball captaincy?” he told Sky Sports.
“In this part of the world, if you are Babar Azam and you go two games without a half century or a hundred, the pressure builds, let alone eight, nine Test matches. The pressure is on him, definitely.”
Azam recently featured in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh, but had little impact with the bat as he made 64 runs at an average of 16.
He then proceeded to play for the Stallions in the Champions One-Day Cup, which was a domestic 50-over competition that took place in Faisalabad.
In four games, he accumulated 230 runs, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 76.66.
Azam was then involved in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against England, but was only selected for the first Test in Multan, where he made scores of 30 and 5.
Despite not picking Azam for the second and third Tests, Pakistan beat England 2-1, which gave them their first Test series win at home since 2021.
The Pakistan team will now tour Australia and play three ODIs and three T20Is from November 4 to 18.
Afterwards, they will head to Zimbabwe to play three ODIs and three T20Is from November 24 to December 5.
Pakistan Squad for Australia ODI Series: Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi
Pakistan Squad for Australia T20I Series: Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Jahandad Khan, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Omair Bin Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Usman Khan
Pakistan Squad for Zimbabwe ODI Series: Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Irfan Khan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shahnawaz Dahani, Tayyab Tahir
Pakistan Squad for Zimbabwe T20I Series: Ahmed Daniyal, Arafat Minhas, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Jahandad Khan, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Irfan Khan, Omair bin Yousuf, Qasim Akram, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir, Usman Khan