Under Babar Azam, Pakistan were knocked out in the early stages of the 2023 ODI World Cup and 2024 T20 World Cup
Pakistan hit a new low in international cricket, crashing out of the 2025 Champions Trophy in the group stage. The Men in Green, led by Mohammad Rizwan, lost to New Zealand and India. Their final group game against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi was washed out due to rain. Babar Azam had led Pakistan prior to Rizwan.
Senior Pakistan batter Ahmed Shehzad has criticised Azam, claiming that he favoured his “friends” over players performing well when he was captain of the national side.
“It’s sad to see him in this condition. When he started his career, it seemed he would break all records for Pakistan. But now, everything is in front of you-players don’t fail for this long. It was a mistake to make a performer the captain. After becoming captain, he surrounded himself with friends and selected them for the team, disregarding merit. When you favour friends over deserving players, the wheels of domestic cricket stop turning, as genuine performers don’t get enough chances,” he added.Shehzad told Sports Today.
Under Azam, Pakistan were knocked out of the 2023 ODI World Cup in the league stage and suffered a group-stage exit at the 2024 T20 World Cup. In 43 ODIs under his captaincy, Pakistan won 26 games and lost 15. Surprisingly, Azam is the nation’s fifth most successful captain in the 50-over format with a win percentage of 60.46. He led in 85 T20Is and returned with 56.47% wins.
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Shehzad cited political interference as a reason for Pakistan’s downfall. He also claimed that players are not being selected in the squad on the basis of merit.
“Political interference has always been there; there’s no doubt. But the condition of the team is not because of the last two years, this has been happening for a while now. When you don’t bring in reforms, when you don’t honour merit, and when you don’t control indiscipline in the team, sooner or later, these results will come,” added the 33-year-old.
The opener has himself been ignored by the Pakistan selectors for quite some time now. He last played for Pakistan in a T20I against Sri Lanka in 2019. Shehzad has played 13 Tests, 81 ODIs, and 59 T20Is to date, scoring 4458 runs across the three formats.
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