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Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson has explained what former skipper Babar Azam must do to regain his place in the national T20I squad ahead of next year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Babar has not featured in T20Is since the end of last year and was recently left out of the squad for the upcoming tri-series against UAE and Afghanistan, as well as next month’s Asia Cup.
Although the right-hander showed some form with a 47-run knock during the opening ODI against the West Indies in Trinidad, his subsequent failures — scoring zero and nine — did little to strengthen his case for a comeback.
Hesson identified two main areas where Babar needs to improve if he wants to return to the side. The coach also hinted that strong performances in Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) later this year could open the door for the star batter.
“There’s no doubt Babar’s been asked to improve in some areas around taking on spin and in terms of his strike rate. Those are things he’s working really hard on,” Hesson said.
“But at the moment the players we have, have done exceptionally well. Sahibzada Farhan has played six games (against Bangladesh and West Indies) and won three Player of the Match awards,” he added.
“A player like Babar has an opportunity to play in the BBL and show he’s improving in those areas in T20s. He’s too good a player not to consider,” he further added.
Babar’s absence was not the only surprise in the 17-man squad, as ODI captain Mohammad Rizwan was also left out. Hesson explained that the selectors preferred batters who could maintain a higher strike rate and reward those who had done well in recent series.
“We were challenged with three different surfaces (in recent matches against Bangladesh and West Indies),” Hesson said.
“In Lahore, the surfaces were flat and the batting excelled. We went to Bangladesh where they were incredibly challenging and low-scoring games. Our top-order sets the game up. All the games we won the top order performed really well,” Hesson added.
“The third game against the West Indies, our openers put on 140 (138). We need that at a run rate that gets us ahead of the game. T20 is all about setting the game up and being ahead of the game all the time in case you get yourself out. From a batting point of view we’ve got a line-up that can continue to do that,” Hesson concluded.
Pakistan squad for tri-series and Asia Cup:
Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Waseem Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem.
