Pakistan Cricket Board has a penchant for proffering surprises. Still, none could have predicted what transpired on the 13th of October 2024 when the newly reformed selection committee announced the exclusion of Babar Azam along with pacers Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi from the remaining two test matches against England.
Babar’s lean patch with the bat continued during Pakistan’s shambolic innings defeat to England in the first test. The once prolific batter scored just 30 and 5 in two innings on a pitch that offered very little to the bowlers underscoring his ongoing troubles.
Despite being in the worst slump of his career, not many could have foreseen the soon-to-be 30-year-old being dropped from the side altogether.
The former captain will now watch from the sidelines as Pakistan gears up to face the full force of Bazball once again in Multan tomorrow.
But how did we get here? Let’s take a look at all that went wrong in an instant for a man who was destined for greatness.
When the scrawny 20-year-old Babar made his debut against Zimbabwe in 2015, two things became evident to the onlookers. One, that he will surely become one of the best batters in the world and two, that he will lead the Pakistan cricket team in the near future.
Both of those predictions would come true in no time.
Babar would go on to eviscerate several scoring records in the coming years as his experience grew, being named in the same breath as the fab-four of Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Steve Smith.
He averaged more runs across all formats than Kohli in 2020, 2021 and 2022, more than Root in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. Babar also beat out Williamson across combined batting averages in 2016, 2018 2019, 2020 and 2022 while he bettered Smith’s averages in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Babar’s personal trophy cabinet grew substantially during this heyday as well. He was voted into ICC’s Men’s ODI Team of the Year in 2019, 2021 and 2022, the ICC Men’s T20 Team of the Year in 2021, and the ICC Men’s Test Team of the Year 2022.
A Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy in 2022 also signaled his accession to the top of the cricketing hierarchy.
His many heroics also earned him the nickname “King” from the adoring public with whole stadiums chanting his name everywhere he went.
With each passing year, he would continue to improve becoming the keystone in a batting lineup which needed a ballast.
The second part of the prediction would come true in 2019 when Babar would be handed the reins of the T20 side. Just a year later, he would make the Test and ODI captaincies his own.
Captaincy would bode well for Babar at first. Both he and the national team benefited from each other. With Babar shouldering the run-scoring burden for his side and a budding pace attack of Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Hasan Ali along with an emerging spinner in Shadab Khan, Pakistan cricket seemed to have finally found a winning formula.
The peak of his tenure would soon arrive when Babar and Co would break the World Cup hoodoo against India in 2021 with a thumping 10-wicket win.
Despite things being dandy, an international trophy would remain elusive.
Heartbreaks in T20 World Cups against Australia in 2021 and a final loss to England in 2022 would give rise to dissident voices against Babar’s milquetoast form of captaincy.
The first cracks in this perfect union would form in 2021 when Babar’s troubles with the bat started in tests and T20s. The ever-reliable batter suddenly looked mortal averaging just 40.93 runs across all three formats, the lowest since his debut in 2015.
A bounce-back year in 2022 courtesy of his sublime ODI form managed to squash a few calls for his dismissal. He finished the year with an average of 69.64 across all formats courtesy of an incredulous average of 84 in ODIs.
But they came roaring back in 2023 after he finished the year with an average of just 39.97 across all formats, the worst of his career.
The ongoing 2024 would prove to be even worse for the run-starved batter as he is averaging just 32.32 runs across all formats in 26 outings. This includes a streak of 18 innings in which he has failed to cross the 50-run mark in tests.
The humbling’s at the hands of Bangladesh, Australia and England were all laid at the feet of Babar who failed to contribute anything substantial with the bat across the three series.
The signs of his exclusion were apparent when PCB decided to announce the squad for only the first test against England. With no other options left, the selection committee decided to axe the former skipper for the remainder of the series against England.
Babar Azam has not played his final test match that much is for certain. His exclusion from the team is guaranteed to be short-lived.
Pakistan simply does not have a player capable of matching the achievements of Babar nor shouldering the run-scoring burden that the middle-order is usually tasked with.
Every player who has suited up for an international cricket match has gone through a run drought with Kohli, Root, Steve Smith and Williamson being no exceptions and neither have been the greats of the past.
The axing seems to be more of a protective measure for the player from all the scrutiny he has received in the past few weeks.
Pakistan will travel to Australia for a 5-match ODI series in November and there is not a single soul who believes that Babar’s name will not be on the place travelling down under.
Get the latest sports news, match updates, and player stories wherever you prefer.
Add ProPakistani to Preferred Sources and see more of our stories in Google Search and Top Stories.