Advertisement
Advertisement
Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal has thrown his weight behind the decision to exclude star batters Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan from the national T20I team.
Babar and Rizwan were dropped earlier this year for the five-match T20I series against New Zealand, a decision the selection committee described as a move to test younger players ahead of the T20 World Cup.
The star batters have also been left out of the ongoing home series against Bangladesh.
Speaking on a recent podcast, Kamran Akmal addressed the growing speculation that both batters might be permanently phased out of Pakistan’s T20 plans.
“That’s absolutely the right decision,” said the 43-year-old. “I believe this should happen because these players are more suited for the longer format of the game.”
Taking it a step further, Akmal even questioned their place in the ODI setup, suggesting that Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan should focus solely on red-ball cricket moving forward.
“After another six months, they should be sidelined from ODIs too. Pakistan hardly plays Test matches these days — no one’s even talking about them — but if real players are made anywhere, it’s through Test cricket,” he remarked.
The former wicket-keeper reiterated the foundational value of red-ball cricket, asserting that mastering Test cricket improves a cricketer’s game across all formats.
“You can’t just play T20 and expect to be great at Test cricket too. If someone plays Test matches, they can handle ODIs and T20Is as well,” Kamran Akmal added.
It’s worth noting that a new-look Pakistan side, under Salman Ali Agha’s captaincy, managed to win only one game during the five-match T20I series against New Zealand.
However, they had a strong start to their current home series against Bangladesh, winning the first match by 37 runs.
