Pakistan’s regular captain Babar Azam has been rested for the T20 series against Afghanistan. His teammate Shadab Khan claimed that Babar was not aware of the decision taken by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).On Monday (March 13), the PCB announced a 15-man squad with Shadab as captain for the Afghanistan series, leaving out three-star cricketers Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi. After the announcement of the team, the board informed us about, not including the three senior cricketers in the team, they have been rested to cope with the pressure of the busy schedule. Apart from that, PCB is in favor of seeing youngsters play in this edition before the 2024 T20 World Cup.

However, after the PSL match between Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United, Shadab told the media that he did not know the rest given to Babar. He said, ‘I am not sure whether I, Babar, or Rizwan will be given rest! I got this information from you. If we were given rest, we would have been informed about it.’Baba and Rizwan have long been criticized in the T20 edition due to their poor strike rate. Therefore, the separation of these two cricketers created some fear in the cricket community. However, according to PCB chairman Najam Shetty, it is clear that they have no intention of removing Babar from this edition.

He said, “There is nothing about Babar. He is our regular captain. He will be captain as long as he wants. Now if Babar himself thinks that he does not want to be captain, that is a different matter. Babar can captain all three editions and can drop any one or two. The whole thing depends on him. Pakistan will play a three-match T20I series against Afghanistan at the end of this month. The first one will be built on the ground on March 24. After that, the remaining two matches of the series will be played on March 26 and 27.