Basit Ali: “If Mohammad Haris says Babar Azam needs improvement, I think Haris should be beaten with a stick. Haris, who are you to speak about Babar Azam?”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali has lashed out at batsman Mohammad Haris for implying that Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan need to improve their game.
Haris said the duo “have delivered many performances for Pakistan”, but suggested they currently aren’t meeting the benchmarks in place.
“No doubt, Babar and Rizwan have delivered many performances for Pakistan, but when you want to set a benchmark, you need to give chances to the juniors,” the 24-year-old said.
However, his comments didn’t go down well with Basit, who called on the Peshawar native to look at himself before talking about players of Azam’s calibre.
“If Mohammad Haris says Babar Azam needs improvement, I think Haris should be beaten with a stick. Haris, who are you to speak about Babar Azam?” he was quoted as saying by ARY News.
Azam and Rizwan were left out of Pakistan’s squad for the T20I series against Bangladesh in Lahore, the T20I tour of Bangladesh, the T20I series against the West Indies, and the T20I tri-series against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Afghanistan.
They did play in the ODI series against the West Indies, with Azam scoring 56 runs at an average of 18.66.
Rizwan, who captains Pakistan in the 50-over format, amassed 69 runs, which included a top score of 53, at an average of 23.
The men in green are now featuring in the 2025 Asia Cup, which is being held in the UAE.
Haris is part of the team and has accumulated 100 runs in five games, which includes a top score of 66, at an average of 25 and a strike-rate of 136.98.
Pakistan beat Oman and the UAE in the group stage, while also losing to India.
Having made it to the Super Four, they went up against India once again but were crushed by six wickets.
Pakistan rebounded from that loss in their match against Sri Lanka as they triumphed by five wickets.
Next up for them will be a clash against Bangladesh on September 25 in Dubai.
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
[TS_Poll id=”149″]