Mushtaq Ahmed: “Babar Azam suffered captaincy loss and later was dropped from T20 squad of Pakistan. Nobody cared for Babar in his tough time which is a reason behind an extended bad patch of Babar”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan spinner Mushtaq Ahmed has attributed Babar Azam’s prolonged bad form to nobody caring about him “in his tough time”.
Azam has found it difficult to score runs on a consistent basis for months, which has led to him being bombarded with criticism.
Mushtaq noted that when the 30-year-old was removed as Pakistan captain on two different occasions and dropped from the T20I team, no one threw their support behind him, which must have been very demotivating for the Lahore native.
“Babar Azam suffered captaincy loss and later was dropped from T20 squad of Pakistan. Nobody cared for Babar in his tough time which is a reason behind an extended bad patch of Babar,” he was quoted as saying by journalist Arfa Feroz Zake on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Azam recently played in Pakistan’s three-match ODI series against New Zealand and scored 129 runs, which included two fifties, at an average of 43.
Afterwards, he captained the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2025 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and amassed 288 runs in 10 games, which included three fifties, at an average of 36 and a strike-rate of 128.57.
Following PSL 10, Pakistan went up against Bangladesh in a three-match T20I series, but Azam was not included in the team.
The men in green won the series 3-0.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh T20I Series: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abbas Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wicketkeeper) and Saim Ayub
[TS_Poll id=”149″]