Srinagar: Former Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal has lashed out at former Pakistan cricketers for degrading Babar Azam and has aksed those Ex-Cricketers to keep their mouths shut.
After Pakistan’s disastrous Champions Trophy campaign, where they crashed out in the group stage. The selection committee’s decided to sideline Babar and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan from T20 squad for New Zealand tour.
Both players, despite their established records, have often been criticized for their strike rates, leading to slow starts in the shortest format.
Ajmal, however, believes the decision to remove Babar is short-sighted and detrimental to Pakistan’s cricketing future. Speaking to Sportstar, he did not hold back in his criticism of how the PCB has handled the matter.
“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 remarked.
“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,” he added.
“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.
He also referenced Virat Kohli, stating that the India batting legend also prefers to pace his innings, rather than going on an all-out aggressive.
“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,” said Ajmal.