Saeed Ajmal: “You have only one star. If you degrade him also, then how will your cricket run? These are the big issues. Our former cricketers should keep their mouths shut”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary spinner Saeed Ajmal has slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for dropping batsman Babar Azam from the T20I team.
Azam was left out for the five-match T20I series against New Zealand and continued to be overlooked for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Bangladesh.
Ajmal questioned how the PCB could even think of axing the 30-year-old from the squad when he is the only star they have got.
He also had the same feelings about Mohammad Rizwan, who used to captain the men in green in T20Is before being replaced by Salman Ali Agha and removed from the team.
“You have only one star. If you degrade him also, then how will your cricket run? These are the big issues. Our former cricketers should keep their mouths shut,” Ajmal was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“As a cricketer, one must realise that bad patches are part of a player’s career. You can’t play cricket the same way all your life. Even if you were Tendulkar, you couldn’t score 100 in every match.
“The way you’ve removed them (Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan) is wrong. It’s not like they are the only ones who haven’t scored. Ideally, the selectors should sit with Babar and discuss his workload, so he can come back stronger.”
Azam recently captained the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2025 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and scored 288 runs in 10 matches, which included three fifties, at an average of 36 and a strike-rate of 128.57.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be their three-match T20I series against Bangladesh, which will be held in Lahore from May 28 to June 1.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh T20I Series: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wicketkeeper) and Saim Ayub
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