According to Jason Gillespie, Pakistan’s red-ball coach, Babar Azam is “almost there” in terms of returning to his form. However, Babar, the right hand batsman has not performed well lately. In the period since January 2023, the 29-year-old Babar scored only 317 runs from eight Tests at an average of 21.13 with a high score of 41.
During this ongoing test series against Bangladesh, he has accumulated only 64 runs at an average of 16 with a maximum score so far being 31. On Day 4 of the second Test in Rawalpindi, he scored 31 runs before Shakib Al Hasan dismissed him.
Babar unable to convert starts admits Gillespie but on a positive note seemed optimistic that his runs were on their way
“In Babar there lies an elite player and he has had some starts unlike many others in our team who have not taken these opportunities,” he said during the post-play press conference. “But he is a world-class cricketer and I sense that we are not too far away from it.” These were Gillespie’s words after the play on the first day of the series.
Gillespie also touched on the rationale for removing Shaheen Shah Afridi from the second Test match. The head coach stated that “Pakistan wants him at his top-notch,” taking into account difficult periods that lie ahead.
To put it differently, there are naturally a couple of areas we thought Shaheen may need to improve on. Besides he has also had time in his life that can be termed eventful. Keeping all these things into consideration, we want Shaheen Afridi to be at his very best for as much cricket as possible,” Gillespie said.
“Because of the heavy schedule we have; he’s an all-format player who needs to be fit and firing,” continued Gillespie”. Thus our intention is to ensure that he bowls at his very best so that he can play for Pakistan on numerous occasions.
After suffering from a 10 wicket defeat in the first Test, Pakistan find themselves on the verge of another loss in the second match too. Bangladesh require another 143 runs with ten wickets remaining in their second innings.