Babar missed the first couple of sessions as he was down with flu.
As per local reports, Pakistan captain Babar Azam didn’t take the field during the first session of the day’s play as he was down with flu along with Shan Masood and Salman Ali Agha. This led to a conundrum as to who will captain the Pakistan team in his absence as designated vice-captain Mohammad Rizwan was dropped for this Test match.
It was expected that the team management would depute someone from the playing XI to take charge as designated vice-captain, but instead, Rizwan was sent out as substitute fielder and to everyone's amazement he was also taking calls on the field, which is against the laws of the game that clearly state that a substitute cannot act as captain.
However, later it was made clear that Sarfaraz Ahmed, former Pakistan captain, took over the duties of making decisions as stand-in captain and even took a very good DRS review against Devon Conway.
However, this confusion with Rizwan making field changes and Sarfaraz taking other decisions led to cricket fans mocking the state of the Pakistan team, first for not naming a designated vice-captain and then for not knowing the rules of the game by letting Rizwan lead the side as a substitute fielder.
Here are some of the reactions: