Basit Ali: “He still has a place in the team”

Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani

Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali believes batsman Babar Azam “still has a place in the team”, even though he was removed from the squad midway through the three-Test series against England.

Azam made scores of 30 and 5 in the first Test in Multan before he and the pace duo of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah were pulled from the side completely.

Many people believed the trio were dropped, but Pakistan assistant coach Azhar Mahmood insisted they had been rested.

Regardless of this, Basit is confident Azam will return to the playing XI in Test cricket very soon.

“He still has a place in the team,” he said on his YouTube channel as quoted by NDTV.

Right now, Azam is in action in Pakistan’s white-ball series against Australia, which consists of three ODIs and three T20Is.

In the ODI series, he made 80 runs at an average of 80 as Pakistan won 2-1, which was their first ODI series win in Australia since 2002.

After their remaining matches against Australia, the men in green 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

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