Michael Vaughan: “I think Babar Azam is a brilliant batter but will he get into the T20I teams of England, Australia, India and even West Indies? No!”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes Pakistan batsman Babar Azam wouldn’t get picked by England, Australia, India and the West Indies in T20Is.
Vaughan’s brutally honest admission comes at a time when Azam is currently out of the Pakistan T20I squad.
The 30-year-old used to be one of the men in green’s go-to openers in the shortest format, but his low strike-rate continued to be a problem.
Having missed Pakistan’s last few T20I assignments, Vaughan questioned how good the Lahore native is when it comes to 20-over cricket.
“I think Babar Azam is a brilliant batter but will he get into the T20I teams of England, Australia, India and even West Indies? No!” he was quoted as saying by Khel Shel on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Azam recently 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 this, he was ignored by the selectors for Pakistan’s T20I series against Bangladesh in Lahore, the T20I tour of Bangladesh and the three-match T20I series against the West Indies.
However, Azam did feature in Pakistan’s three-match ODI series against the West Indies in Trinidad, where he made 56 runs at an average of 18.66.
Next up for the men in green will be a T20I tri-series against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Afghanistan in Sharjah, which will be held from August 29 to September 7.
Following this, Pakistan will take part in the 2025 Asia Cup, which will be played in the UAE from September 9 to 28.
Azam was not among those included in the team when Pakistan named their squad for the T20I tri-series and Asia Cup.
Pakistan squad for UAE T20I tri-series and 2025 Asia Cup: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem