Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali has slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) reported decision to rest senior players, including Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, and Mohammad Rizwan, for the upcoming tour of New Zealand.
Following Pakistan’s disastrous ICC Champions Trophy 2025 campaign, reports surfaced suggesting that the PCB was considering giving key players a break for the white-ball series, which is set to run from March 16 to April 5, featuring five T20Is and three ODIs.
However, Basit Ali isn’t buying the narrative of “resting” players. Speaking on ARY News’ show Har Lamha Purjosh, he called the move a farce, claiming that senior players would eventually return once the younger replacements failed to deliver in New Zealand.
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“It will be said that Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi faced injustice in selection,” Basit remarked.
Instead of resting them, the former cricketer believes that the PCB should be upfront about their intentions and inform Babar, Shaheen, and Rizwan that they are no longer part of the T20I setup.
“You should tell them that we will not consider you for the T20I team,” he added.
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Pakistan’s senior players have been under fire ever since their shocking group-stage exit from the Champions Trophy 2025.
Consecutive defeats against New Zealand and India left them at the bottom of Group A with just one point, as their final match against Bangladesh was washed out in Rawalpindi.
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