He recently endured a mixed outing for Pakistan in the Champions Trophy 2025.
Pakistan is likely to exclude senior batter Babar Azam from their T20I squad for the five-match series against New Zealand, starting on March 16 in Christchurch. According to a report in Cricket Pakistan, there have been discussions on resting senior players from the series.
Pakistan, who are hosting the ongoing 2025 Champions Trophy, endured a group stage exit after losing to New Zealand and India. Rain washed out their third group stage match in Rawalpindi against Bangladesh. The report states that Pakistan may include young players in their T20I squad, although the final decision is yet to be made. Players who have performed brilliantly in domestic cricket recently met with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi.
Apart from the five-match T20I series, the Men in Green are scheduled to play New Zealand in a three-match ODI series starting on March 29.
Babar Azam had a mixed outing in the two matches he played in the Champions Trophy. He scored 64 runs off 90 balls against New Zealand, hitting six fours and one six. He fell for a low score against India in the next match.
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In the high-profile game against the Men in Blue, Azam managed only 23 runs off 26 balls in the first innings, as Pakistan collapsed to 241. During that game, the 30-year-old became the third batter from Pakistan to score 1,000-plus runs in ICC ODI tournaments.
To date, Babar Azam has played 128 ODIs and scored 6106 runs at a strike rate of 55.50. He has 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries in the 50-over format.
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