Pakistan’s ace batter, Babar Azam, will be rested for the second Test match against England due to his continuous lean patch. The newly constituted selection committee, which consists of former umpire Aleem Dar, medium-pacer Aaqib Javed, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, analyst Hassan Cheema, skipper Shan Masood, and coach Jason Gillespie, suggested his dropping, according to an ESPNCricinfo report.
According to this report, the newly formed selection committee believed he would be better off taking a break from the Pakistan team, as he failed to register even a half-century in the previous 22 months and last 15 innings to get some “me time” in the right mental shape, to regain his lost charm as a batter. This will be the first time he’ll be rested in 54 test matches played for Pakistan.
If Babar is getting dropped from the 2nd Test match’s team, it remains to be seen whether he will make himself available for Faisalabad in the next Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan’s domestic first-class championship. Babar hasn’t participated in this tournament in the last five years.
Babar Azam is going through perhaps the lowest phase of his cricketing career, as he hasn’t even scored a half-century in the previous eighteen innings in Tests. Babar has averaged fewer than 21 in nine Tests since the beginning of the last year.
The second test match between Pak and Eng is scheduled to take place on October 15 in Multan.
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