Ahead of the second test against England, Pakistan will sport a rather dramatically different side. The reason? The opening Test match at Multan resulted in a heavy defeat for the hosts. One that yielded an inning loss. It’s never easy to digest. Right? But truth be told, just as big a disappointment as that loss is Pakistan’s disappointing decision to remove Babar Azam from the squad. That is right. One of Pakistan’s foremost batters will no longer feature in the Test lineup.
The most dominant question in the realm of international Test cricket is whether Pakistan made the right call or hammered upon themselves a self-inflicted blow.
At CricToday, we think it is the latter. Here are 5 reasons that seem to point in that very direction. Take a look:
1. Babar Azam is the backbone of Pakistan’s batting unit
To have someone like Babar Azam removed from the Test unit is akin to removing the main actor from a proper big-budget potboiler just days before the shooting is to begin.
For the past half a decade, if there is a batsman from the Pakistan men’s national cricket team who’s been able to rub shoulders with some of the world’s leading batters, including Kohli and Root, then it is Babar Azam.
For sure, there’s much that he still needs to do in order to strengthen his game further at the five-day level. But Babar’s inherent hunger for runs and ability to do the bulk of his team’s scoring on more occasions than none have heightened his career and status as among the world’s premier batters.
Together with the likes of Mohammad Rizwan and Azhar Ali, Babar Azam formed an important troika of Pakistan’s lineup that so often relies on the bowlers to do good work in Tests. Hence, the onus of batsmanship relied heavily on the right-hander. What is the team going to achieve by dropping a highly talented lad?
2. Is he actually going through a lean patch?
There’s been a growing concern regarding Babar Azam currently undergoing a lean patch, and this has been rather prolonged in his recent playing career than most would know. But while it is absolutely true and driven by facts that Babar didn’t have even close to a good 2023 when it comes to Test cricket, his numbers prior to that have been rather telling.
Last year, he scored just 204 runs from 9 innings (5 Tests), but Babar Azam had a rather prolific 2022 playing Test cricket for Pakistan.
So the question is, what did one of Pakistan’s most widely regarded batters achieve that year?
Scoring no fewer than 1184 from just 9 Test matches (17 innings), Babar Azam commanded respect and plaudits, both of which he seems to have lost. What he desperately needs at the moment is some faith and backing. It’s not always possible for a batter to score dollops of runs at a Test average of 69, which the former Pak skipper achieved back in that year.
So Pakistan need to address the elephant in the room: Are Babar Azam’s ordinary numbers just indicative of a current lean patch or is it actually a problem that has persisted for long?
3. His numbers at home are impressive
Let us dive into something that is both fascinating and beckons more attention than given:
16 Tests, 1590 runs, 6 centuries, and 7 fifties at an average of 58 at home! These are Babar Azam’s figures while playing Tests at home in Pakistan.
So while his average away from Pakistan’s home turf is 37, Babar Azam even has a better strike rate on home turf: 58. As a matter of fact, his personal best score of 196 in Test match cricket has come at home in Pakistan.
Truth be told, the right-hander is more at home where he holds on an end on Pakistani pitches than one would note. His ability to stay at the wicket and produce useful runs has for long held his team in good stead.
No random-speak this.
Babar Azam has been dismissed for a duck on only one occasion from 29 innings in home conditions. He’s a great of the game. That is for sure. It is an undisputed fact, and one hopes that a player of his stature is utilized well instead of being slider onto a quiet corner.
4. Someone with Babar’s experience is needed when Pakistan are undergoing a transition
The current Pakistani unit are clearly undergoing a period of transformation. It’s a period whose best days, it could be argued, are still in the future for the present team under Shan Masood, which doesn’t seem to be blooming all that well. So how is that? Pakistan’s Test unit has lost each of the 6 Test matches that it has played ever since Shan Masood took over as captain. This is where it becomes very important for the Kuwait-born cricketing captain to realize the importance brought to the team by someone like Babar Azam, an old guard of the team.
More importantly, as Pakistan are recalibrating its approach, the national team needs players who’ve captained before and made runs under pressure.
5. One failure in a test doesn’t lead to being dropped
Quite frankly, it’s impractical. It’s quite a hard call that may surely have made Babar Azam crestfallen with disappointment. Harsh even!
His most recent Test scores read- 30 off 71 and 5 off 15 deliveries against England. Surely, he flopped. But what is the guarantee that he may not have produced the results when his team desperately needed their best to stand up, especially at the back of a heartbreaking loss that Multan that culminated into an inning defeat for the hosts?