Babar Azam’s exclusion from the second Test match against England for Pakistan sent ripples across the world of cricket. The superstar batter had to bear the consequences of underwhelming performances for some time, as the newly formed national selection committee of Pakistan Cricket Board advocated for a change. Pakistan great Ramiz Raja, however, feels the selectors have made an error in judgment, in what he terms as a ‘knee jerk reaction’. For Ramiz, it does not make sense for an important player-dependable and also a true brand that may bring in money to Pakistan cricket- to be on the benches.
‘It was a knee-jerk reaction I think. By the new selectors, it was felt he needed rest but there were no moderate measures taken and he was just dropped,’ Ramiz said during a chat on Sky Cricket.
He even plays cricket for Pakistan’s advertisement. There is always this controversy that is ongoing in Pakistan right now – will there be yet again another failure of Babar Azam or will he rise again. And that is what makes it interesting,’ he further stated.
Babar is not the only star of Pakistan who was axed as both Shaheen Shannon Afridi and Naseem Shah have been dealt the same fate. In the absence of the trio, Ramiz believes that there is no ‘sellable commodity’ even in the Bank Of England’s XI against Pakistan in the second Test which is not good from the sponsorship point of view.
“Right now, I don’t see any sellable commodities in this Pakistan team… sponsors are a little wary as well because a) Pakistan have been on the losing sequence and b) There are no real superstars playing in this Test match now,” he stated.
While tossing for the second test, Pakistan’s captain Shan Masood voiced out concerns on the absence of three star players but also pointed out that some issues are outside his control.
“I think firstly playing a Test match for Pakistan is a huge opportunity for anyone who wants to be a cricketer so we’re all excited and there’s some rejuvenated energy in the camp,” Shan Masood stated.
“There’s stuff we can’t control but we can control what we do on the field,” he said on the team selections We are very positive about this. We are glad the spinners have some conditions where we can demonstrate that we have some good spinners,” he continued.
