Babar Azam is widely regarded as one of the best batters in contemporary cricket.
Thanks to his consistency in recent years, Babar is currently holding a numero uno position in the ICC ODI batting rankings, third in T20I and fourth in Test cricket.
Azam has played 49 Tests, 108 ODIs and 104 T20Is for Pakistan so far, aggregating 12000+ runs with 31 hundreds.
Despite his impressive performances across formats, Babar Azam still has his fair share of critics and former Pakistan Mohammad Asif seems to be one of them.
While speaking on X space on Friday (September 22) night, Asif claimed that he can bowl a maiden over against Babar in the shortest format even today.
"I can bowl a maiden over to Babar Azam in T20 cricket even today, he cannot hit the ball if you bowl good deliveries to him," Asif stated.
Despite taking Pakistan to No. 1 position in ODI cricket, Babar Azam’s captaincy often draws him criticism. Under his leadership, the Men in Green recently failed to qualify for the Asia Cup 2023 final despite a strong start to their campaign.
According to Asif, Pakistan don’t have a choice to replace Babar as skipper. He also alleged that former skipper Shahid Afridi is pushing for Shaheen Afridi to become the captain of the Pakistan cricket team.
"We don't have a choice right now to replace Babar Azam as captain. Shahid Afridi is trying for Shaheen Afridi to become captain, but it's not easy," he said.
Pakistan on Friday (September 22) announced their 15-member squad for the upcoming ODI World Cup in India.
As expected, star pacer Naseem Shah wasn’t included in the side due to a shoulder injury he sustained in the Asia Cup Super 4 clash against India. Hasan Ali replaced Naseem in the squad, also featuring Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Wasim Jr as fast bowling options.
Commenting on Pakistan’s pace attack for the World Cup, Asif said: "We have all average bowlers in the squad, there's none special."
"Hasan Ali is part of the lobby, he eats with Babar Azam and other players. He is in the team because he is part of the lobby, this used to be the case when we used to play too. A lobby doesn't select players from outside," he claimed.
Asif strongly criticized the selection of Agha Salman, saying he doesn’t even consider him a player.
"I don't consider Agha Salman as a player, he's a waste of time. Even I can score the number of runs he scores. He only scores when Pakistan has already scored a lot of runs as a team," he remarked.
Pakistan will open their World Cup campaign against the Netherlands on October 6 in Hyderabad.
Pakistan squad for World Cup: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Hasan Ali
Travelling Reserves: Abrar Ahmed, Zaman Khan and Mohammad Haris