Former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram has urged the national selectors to include star batter Babar Azam in the T20 squad. Highlighting Babar\u2019s experience and consistent performance. Akram emphasized that the batter could play a crucial role in successfully chasing challenging totals. In an interview with an Indian broadcaster, Akram said that having Babar in the lineup could make a huge difference. Especially when chasing totals on difficult pitches. \u201cJust think if you have to chase a target of 150 or 160 on a difficult wicket\u2014Babar\u2019s presence can prove to be very useful,\u201d Akram noted. \u201cThe game may have to be adjusted a little, but a batter like Babar is essential on such occasions.\u201d Babar Azam\u2019s exclusion from T20I Babar, who is the second-highest run-scorer in T20 Internationals, has been absent from the squad since the series against South Africa in December last year. Selectors did not include him in the ongoing Asia Cup, opting instead to test young players with the World Cup scheduled for next year. Reflecting on the past four to five years, Akram acknowledged that both Babar and Mohammad Rizwan were given plenty of opportunities as openers. While they delivered strong performances, he added, their consistency fell short of expectations. This, according to Akram, explains why the selectors are giving new talent a chance in the shortest format. Praise for Pakistan\u2019s current approach Despite his call for Babar\u2019s return, Akram lauded the bold thinking of the current Pakistan team. He praised captain Salman Ali Agha for his leadership and expressed confidence in the younger squad\u2019s ability to regularly beat top cricketing nations. \u201cThese players have the ability to defeat even the top teams,\u201d Akram said, endorsing the selectors\u2019 vision for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram has urged the national selectors to include star batter Babar Azam in the T20 squad. Highlighting Babar\u2019s experience and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27375,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}