The Pakistani cricket player Salman Ali Agha has voiced his support for Babar Azam after the latter’s underwhelming performance in terms of runs scored. On Saturday, August 31, Babar Azam only managed to make 31 runs off 77 balls on Day 2 of a Test match against Bangladesh held at Rawalpindi.
Babar Azam was out for a duck during the first innings and scored 22 runs during the second innings. Thus, he failed to create any impression during the opening match of the series as his team lost it by ten wickets which marked their worst start to the home season.
In the second Test match too, Pakistan were put on bat and they went from 179-4 down to 274 all out while Babar Azam was unable to recover from previous poor form shown during earlier matches.
Babar’s form in red ball cricket has been worrying for some time now as he last scorеd over fifty in the format in late 2022. Since then, he has scored very few good runs both at home and away hence his test batting average is below 45 now.
Despite recent stats not favouring Babar Salman Ali Agha believes that he will soon be one of those scoring more runs again.
“Babar Azam is a world-class player. As a cricketer, you go through these phases. He has scored consistently throughout the last five years. Soon, we will see him scoring big runs for Pakistan again. As a cricketer, you have such phases in your life.”
“There are 10 other players in the team, you should focus on them. It’s fine if he’s struggling. He will return to scoring big runs very soon,” Salman Ali Agha said after Day 1 in Rawalpindi.
Thus, Babar Azam was dismissed by a Shakib Al Hasan delivery in the first innings that came in with the arm, leading to an LBW decision.
Babar Azam recently dropped to 9th place in the ICC rankings
Babar Azam’s ongoing slump has considerably affected his assignment in the ICC rankings. After striking a hundred against New Zealand in Karachi last year, he had a rating of 882 but it has recently dropped to 734 which made him fall six positions in the ICC Test rankings for batters settling for ninth place.
On Day 3 Bangladesh resumed their innings at a score of 12-0 having Shadman Islam and Zakir Hasan as the two batsman on duty. Pakistan has gone into this match with an inexperienced bowling squad whose members include those omitted from the playing eleven including Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah.
