Follow UsFormer Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal has lambasted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over the treatment of their star player Babar Azam. Many former cricketers singled out Babar for Pakistan's disastrous ICC Champions Trophy 2025, where they failed to win a single game.
Pakistan started off the campaign with a loss to New Zealand and then lost to arch-rivals India in Dubai before their third game against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi was washed out.
“Aapke paas ek hi toh star hai [You have only one star]. If you degrade him also, then how will your cricket run? These are the big issues. Our former cricketers should keep their mouths shut,” Ajmal told Sportstar.
“As a cricketer, one must realise that bad patches are part of a player’s career. You can’t play cricket the same way all your life. Even if you were Sachin Tendulkar, you couldn’t score 100 runs in every match."
Following the Champions Trophy, the PCB axed both Babar and Mohammad Rizwan from the T20 International (T20I) side, and appointed Salman Agha as the skipper for the New Zealand tour. However, the experienced duo have retained their place for the One-Day Internationals (ODI) that follows the T20Is.
“Look, the way you’ve removed them is wrong. It’s not like they are the only ones who haven’t scored while others have. That’s not the case. Ideally, the selectors should sit down with Babar and discuss rest so that he can come back stronger,” Ajmal stated.
“Babar and Rizwan are great players. Their stats are as good as anyone’s, but the only difference is that they don’t bat aggressively, but they still score runs. Our guys have suddenly realised that in international cricket, everyone plays aggressively.
"Come on, what aggression are we talking about? If they are your proven matchwinners, you don’t need aggression. Even legends like Virat often pace their innings slowly before attacking. That’s his style."