The recent public comments made by former Pakistan captain Babar Azam regarding his discontent with batting at number three in T20 Internationals have raised concerns about the state of affairs within the national team.
The issue arose following the Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to relieve Babar Azam of his captaincy duties across all three formats of the game. Speaking during a media interaction at the Pakistan Super League, Babar expressed his dissatisfaction with being asked to bat at number three during the T20 series against New Zealand in January.
This decision disrupted the successful opening partnership of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, as Rizwan was moved down the order to accommodate a young player, Saim Ayub. The consequence was a disappointing 1-4 defeat for Pakistan in the series.
“It was the Pakistan team’s demand at the time. I did that for Pakistan.
“If I was asked individually, I wasn’t satisfied with the decision to bat at one down position. However, I did that for Pakistan,” Babar said.
He also clarified that he didn’t take any pressure opening in the shortest format, either for Pakistan or his PSL franchise Peshawar Zalmi.
Earlier, Rizwan had also expressed his unhappiness at the change in the batting order and said that the management’s decision was not fruitful and hurt the side.
“You can say that it [breaking the opening pair] has hurt Pakistan. I can say that Babar bhai has a big heart.
“We both agreed that there is no issue. We both told the management that they can try whatever combination they want,” Rizwan said after Pakistan lost the fourth T20I against New Zealand.
The former director of the Pakistan team, Muhammad Hafeez, and the new T20I captain, Shaheen Shah Afridi, had initiated the changes in the batting order.
Inputs from PTI