Pakistan have excluded Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi from the ongoing series against Bangladesh.
The game hasn’t looked back ever since the first T20I was played back in 2005. There was a time when a total of 250 runs used to feel competitive in the ODI format. Suddenly, the same total is getting chased in the T20 format. The game has become fast-paced and continues to grow at a rapid rate. It would not be surprising to see teams chase 200 in the T10 format anytime soon. As in 2025, many international teams are going through a transition. For some teams, the process persists to be smooth, but for the others, it continues to be a tussle. As for Pakistan, it is more of the latter. Two major ICC tournaments are scheduled in the next eight months. Pakistan will have to focus on defining their core as soon as possible.
Pakistan might just be in a spot of bother ahead of the Asia Cup in September 2025. Their ongoing tour to Bangladesh is proving to dent their confidence. After a loss in the first T20I of the series, the visitors were reduced to 15/5. They eventually fell short by a margin of eight runs. The Shaheens are without two of their best batters in Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. The former was excluded from the side due to his poor form leading up to the series. Along with Babar, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi were asked to focus on the World Test Championship as well as ODI cricket. But the team’s recent form shows that they are not yet ready to play without the experienced trio.
The International Cricket Council dropped the ICC Men’s T20I Batter rankings on July 14 this year, and the Men in Green have just three of their names on the list in the top 30.
Travis Head stands first, whereas the next two are taken up by Indians Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma. The Indians have four of their batters in the top 10. However, it is a worrying sign for India’s arch-rivals. Just three of their batters are a part of the top 30 spots in the T20I rankings. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are placed on the 12th and 13th spots, respectively. Mohammad Haris occupies the 30th.
| RANK | TEAM | PLAYER | RATING |
| 1 | Australia | Travis Head | 856 |
| 2 | India | Abhishek Sharma | 829 |
| 3 | India | Tilak Varma | 804 |
| 4 | England | Phil Salt | 791 |
| 5 | England | Jos Butler | 772 |
| 6 | India | Suryakumar Yadav | 739 |
| 7 | Sri Lanka | Pathum Nissanka | 727 |
| 8 | New Zealand | Tim Seifert | 708 |
| 9 | Sri Lanka | Kusal Perera | 677 |
| 10 | India | Yashasvi Jaiswal | 673 |
| 11 | South Africa | Reeza Hendricks | 668 |
| 12 | Pakistan | Babar Azam | 661 |
| 13 | Pakistan | Mohammad Rizwan | 654 |
| 14 | West Indies | Shai Hope | 648 |
| 15 | Sri Lanka | Kusal Mendis | 645 |
| 16 | Australia | Josh Inglis | 641 |
| 17 | England | Ben Duckett | 635 |
| 18 | New Zealand | Finn Allen | 629 |
| 19 | Afghanistan | Rahmanullah Gurbaz | 619 |
| 20 | West Indies | Rovman Powell | 607 |
| 21 | UAE | Muhammad Waseem | 604 |
| 22 | Netherlands | Michael Levitt | 599 |
| 23 | USA | Saiteja Mukkamalla | 598 |
| 24 | West Indies | Johnson Charles | 594 |
| 25 | South Africa | Aiden Markram | 591 |
| 26 | Australia | Mitchell Marsh | 590 |
| 27 | India | Ruturaj Gaikwad | 589 |
| 28 | Scotland | George Munsey | 588 |
| 29 | South Africa | Tristan Stubbs | 581 |
| 30 | Pakistan | Mohammad Haris | 580 |
Pakistan will have to put significant strides in the shortest format of the game if they are to enter the coveted ICC tournaments without Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheeh Shah Afridi. The two batters hold the most runs scored for Pakistan in the T20I format, and their experience will be a huge void to fill.
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| PLAYER | MATCHES | RUNS | AVERAGE |
| Babar Azam | 128 | 4223 | 39.83 |
| Mohammad Rizwan | 106 | 3414 | 47.41 |
| Mohammad Hafeez | 119 | 2514 | 26.46 |
| Shoaib Malik | 123 | 2423 | 31.46 |
| Fakhar Zaman | 95 | 1901 | 22.63 |
| Umar Akmal | 84 | 1690 | 26.00 |
| Ahmed Shahzad | 59 | 1471 | 25.80 |
| Shahid Afridi | 98 | 1405 | 18.01 |
| Iftikhar Ahmed | 66 | 998 | 24.34 |
| Kamran Akmal | 58 | 987 | 21.00 |
Only Fakhar Zaman is in the top 10 batters with the most runs for Pakistan in the shortest format. The fact that they haven’t played enough games is not the fault of players who are currently in the team. But this goes on to show the lack of experience in the Pakistan camp right now. And the team will be entering the field to play the Asia Cup later this year. Head coach Mike Hesson will have a lot to think about, along with his newly appointed captain, Salman Agha.
Out of the last 40 T20Is that the team has played, they have managed to win a mere 14. They have lost 21, while five have concluded without a result. Improving this record will be one of the first targets in front of the captain and management. Additionally, Pakistan’s bowling isn’t quite able to hold on to the good starts that they create. In the 2nd T20I against Bangladesh, they reduced the Bangladesh batters to 29/4 in the powerplay. However, a composed knock from Jaker Ali (55) still took the hosts to a competitive total of 133.
It will be interesting to see how Pakistan find a way out of this muddle, which they find themselves in. With the schedule that they have ahead of themselves, it will surely be an uphill task.
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