Ramiz Raja said that with Babar absent, there is no saleable face in Pakistan team.
Babar Azam being rested from the last two Tests against England in the ongoing series has triggered a massive response across Pakistan. The new PCB selection committee shocked everyone when they decided to rest Babar, Shaheen Afridi, and Naseem Shah after the loss in 1st Test in Multan.
After suffering a historic loss by an inning and 47 runs in the series' first game, Pakistan announced on Sunday that it will replace its established stars with younger players, surprising the cricket world.
According to the PCB, the decision to remove players was made in the best interests of Pakistan's cricket squad.
The PCB announced the decision to reorganize the men's selection committee before the decision. The selection committee has nominated Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed, Azhar Ali, and Hassan Cheema as its new members.
The four seasoned players have been replaced by Haseebullah, Mehran Mumtaz, Mohammad Ali, an off-spinner, Haseebullah, and Kamran Ghulam.
However, former Pakistan captain and PCB chief Ramiz Raja said it was a knee-jerk reaction to remove Babar from the Pakistan team. He said that the batter is the only saleable face the Pakistan team has and sponsors are wary of investing in Men in Green Side now.
"It should have been Babar's call, whether he wanted time out from the playing XI or not. I think it was a knee-jerk reaction, new selectors in, the general opinion was that he needed rest and he was taken out of the squad completely.
Now we need to understand that he sells cricket for Pakistan and this debate that's happening right now in Pakistan about whether it's going to be another failure for Babar Azam or whether he's going to make a comeback and that keeps things interesting. Right now I don't see any saleable commodity in this Pakistan team, because sponsors are a little wary as well. After all, Pakistan has been on the losing sequence and no real superstars are playing in this Test match now,” Ramiz told Sky Sports.
Babar Azam had scored 30 and 5 in 1st Tests and he had not scored a Test fifty in 19 consecutive innings before being rested.