Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood has defended star batter Babar Azam despite his below-par performance after the first Test against England in Multan on Friday.
The home team suffered a humiliating defeat by an innings and 47 runs, becoming the first team to be defeated by an innings after scoring more than 500 runs in one of the innings.
Shan Masood played a brilliant 151-run knock in the first innings, steering his side to a mammoth 556, however, in the second innings he managed only 11. Meanwhile, Babar returned with scores of 30 and 5 in the Multan Test.
While addressing the post-match press conference, the Pakistan captain expressed his faith in Babar, calling him the best batter in the team.
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“There is no doubt that Babar Azam is Pakistan’s best batter. We need to give him some time and think that he’s just one innings away from a comeback,” he stated.
It’s worth noting that Babar has been under tight scrutiny due to his below-par performances recently.
He crashed out of the top ten list in the ICC Test Batting Rankings last month after a forgettable home series against Bangladesh, where he managed 64 runs in four innings. His bad form continued in the first Test against England, extending his string of low scores.
He last crossed the 50-run mark in red-ball cricket back in December 2022 against New Zealand with a marathon 161-run knock. Since then, he has played 16 innings with a highest score of 39 against Sri Lanka in July 2023.