Both players were not included in Pakistan's squad for the Asia Cup 2025.
Pakistan cricket is going under a serious transition. And the same was reflective in their squad for the Asia Cup 2025. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) declared the squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2025. Senior players Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were not included in the squad. It does not raise a lot of eyebrows considering they were not in the T20I scheme of things. But a few did not expect the duo to be excluded from a multi-team tournament like the Asia Cup. Both the players have reportedly been given guidelines on what they need to improve upon.
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Head coach Mike Hesson communicated clearly about what is demanded out of Babar Azam in terms of his contributions. The former Pakistan skipper has been out of T20I internationals for a while now. He last played an international game in the shortest format in December 2024. Furthermore, he has not been able to register a fifty in his last 11 T20I innings, which concludes his lack of consistency.
Former player Mohammad Hafeez has rejected claims of referring to the duo as ‘key players.’ Both the players have not won matches for Pakistan in recent times, and Hafeez thinks that they don’t fit the criteria anymore. He went a notch further and claimed that Babar and Rizwan need to be worried about their position in the Pakistan team.
“Calling them key players would be wrong and unfair. Key players are those who win matches for Pakistan. I think Babar and Rizwan need to be concerned about their positions in the team. They need to prove themselves as good players first; key players come later”, orated Hafeez.
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The two players who were once the pillars for Pakistan have drifted away from the game, in terms of their form. Hesson also indicated towards the fact that Babar Azam can look towards playing in franchise leagues like the Big Bash League (BBL). It would be extremely difficult for Pakistan to keep a player of Babar’s class away from the game if he is in top form. That is exactly what Hesson had to say about the exclusion of the stars.
Hafeez, on the other hand was pretty brutal about his opinions on both Babar and Rizwan. He spoke about what Pakistan Cricket needs to do in order to succeed in the next two decades. He expressed that the board needs to focus on players who can contribute to the success of the team. Pakistan’s performance in their recent series against Bangladesh was very underwhelming. Post that, they have shown great signs of recovery under Salman Agha. They will be hopeful for the upcoming Asia Cup. The former skipper also took a dig at speedsters Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah.
“Our media criticises one or two players and hypes one or two others, which is wrong. We need to talk about those who are actually performing. The same goes for Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi, they are also not giving match winning performances for Pakistan”, Hafeez concluded.
