Shan Masood: “He’ll always be one of the main batsmen to play for Pakistan”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Test captain Shan Masood has assured Babar Azam that he will always be one of the “main batsmen to play for Pakistan”.
His remarks come after Azam was removed from the Test team midway through the three-Test series against England.
Azam, who has been in poor form lately, only featured in the first Test and made scores of 30 and 5.
Despite opting not to pick one of the frontline batsmen for the second and third Tests, Pakistan ended up beating England 2-1, which gave them their first Test series win at home since 2021.
Many former cricketers expressed their anger at the fact Azam was dropped during the series, but Masood insisted that Azam would have benefitted from the break and will come back stronger.
“He’ll always be one of the main batsmen to play for Pakistan,” he said on the BBC’s ‘Stumped’ podcast as quoted by Cricwick.
After the England series, Azam was involved in Pakistan’s limited overs tour of Australia and scored 80 runs in three ODIs at an average of 80.
He then went on to make 47 runs in three T20Is at an average of 15.66.
The men in green won the ODI leg 2-1, which was their first ODI series win in Australia since 2002. However, they were comprehensively beaten 3-0 in the T20Is.
Pakistan are now taking on Zimbabwe in a white-ball series that consists of three ODIs and three T20Is.
They are 1-0 down in the ODIs, with the second match to be played on November 26 in Bulawayo.
The T20I series will get underway on December 1 in Bulawayo.
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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