Ricky Ponting: “The biggest challenge is how they get Babar back into their side. They’ve got to find a way to get Babar back into form and back into their [Test] team”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes the “biggest challenge” Pakistan have right now is finding a way to get batsman Babar Azam “back into form and back into their [Test] team”.
Azam recently played in Pakistan’s three-Test series against England, but was only picked for the first Test in Multan, where he made scores of 30 and 5.
Following this, he was removed from the squad for the second and third Tests, but Pakistan still ended up securing a 2-1 win, which gave them their first Test series victory at home since 2021.
Considering the 30-year-old has struggled to score runs consistently for the past few months, Ponting urged Pakistan to find a way to solve the problem as soon as possible.
“The biggest challenge is how they get Babar back into their side. They’ve got to find a way to get Babar back into form and back into their [Test] team,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
After the England series, Azam featured in three ODIs against Australia and scored 80 runs at an average of 80.
He followed that up with 47 runs in three T20Is at an average of 15.66.
Following the Australia tour, the men in green took on Zimbabwe in a white-ball series, but Azam was rested for it.
Pakistan ended up winning both the ODI and T20I series 2-1.
Next up for them will be a tour of South Africa, which will comprise three T20Is, three ODIs and two Tests.
The T20I series will begin on December 10, while the ODI and Test series will get underway on December 17 and December 26 respectively.
Pakistan Squad for South Africa T20I Series: Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Jahandad Khan, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Omair Bin Yousuf, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir and Usman Khan (wicketkeeper)
Pakistan Squad for South Africa ODI Series: Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir and Usman Khan (wicketkeeper)
Pakistan Squad for South Africa Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub and Salman Ali Agha
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