Mohammad Hafeez, the former Pakistan cricket captain, has stated his opinion regarding the batting position of Babar Azam for the forth-coming Champions Trophy 2025.
Hafeez believes that Babar should return to his usual No. 3 spot in the batting order in the upcoming tournament.
This suggestion comes after Babar was recently moved to open the innings in the tri-nation series due to an injury to Saim Ayub.
However, his performance in this new role has been underwhelming, with low scores of 10, 23 and 29 in the recently concluded tri-series matches.
For the unversed, Babar has been the mainstay for Pakistan for several years in the ODI format, scoring the bulk of runs.
However, his last One Day International century came against Nepal in the 2023 Asia Cup. It is pertinent to note here that the star batter opened the batting last in 2015, the same year he made his ODI debut.
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In his two outings as an opener that year, he scored 4 and 22 runs, respectively.
Babar Azam primarily plays at No. 3, a batting position where he has amassed 5,957 runs in 123 ODIs at an average of 56, with 19 centuries and 23 fifties.
Mohammad Hafeez feels that Pakistan has other capable openers who could partner with Fakhar Zaman in the Champions Trophy.
In a post on X, Hafeez suggested either of Shan Masood, Imam-ul-Haq or Abdullah Shafique to open the inning with Fakhar Zaman in the Champions Trophy 2025.
Hafeez emphasized that moving Azam back to No. 3 would “make things easier for everyone” and optimize the team’s batting lineup for the crucial tournament.
Pakistan squad for ICC Champions Trophy 2025:
Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Mohammad Rizwan (c)(wk), Usman Khan (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Salman Ali Agha (vc), Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
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