Jason Gillespie: “There isn’t any selfishness in Babar and Rizwan’s game at all”

Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani

Former Pakistan red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie has defended Pakistan batsmen Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, saying they are not selfish at all.

Azam and Rizwan have been Pakistan’s go-to run-scorers across all three formats for years, but they have been criticised for wasting too many deliveries, especially in T20Is.

However, Gillespie insisted that they always do what’s best for the team and are not focused on padding their own stats.

“There isn’t any selfishness in Babar and Rizwan’s game at all,” he told PakPassion.

Azam and Rizwan were recently involved in the 2025 Pakistan Super League, with the former captaining the Peshawar Zalmi and scoring 288 runs in 10 games, which included three fifties, at an average of 36 and a strike-rate of 128.57.

As for Rizwan, he led the Multan Sultans and amassed 367 runs in 10 matches, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 52.42 and a strike-rate of 139.54.

Following PSL 10, Pakistan faced Bangladesh in a three-match T20I series, but neither Azam nor Rizwan were 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

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