 "Pakistan white-ball head coach Mike Hesson insists Babar Azam will have to work on his strike rate to make his way back into the T20I team. AP/Sportzpics")
Pakistan white-ball head coach Mike Hesson has denied speculations suggesting he asked former captain Babar Azam to take up wicket-keeping in order to reclaim his spot in the T20I team, although he did mention that the star batter needed to improve his scoring rate in the shortest format.
Babar, once Pakistan’s captain in all three formats, had been dropped from the shortest format along with wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan ahead of the tour of New Zealand earlier this year. Both stalwarts had made their last appearance in the format in December during the tour of South Africa.
Both Babar and Rizwan have been ignored for Pakistan’s upcoming T20I series in Bangladesh, which gets underway on 20 July.
Former New Zealand coach Hesson, however, denied rumours of asking Babar to keep wickets to boost his chances of securing a spot at the top of Pakistan’s T20I batting order, adding that he would not treat a senior player in that manner.
“No discussion took place with Babar where I suggested he also keep wickets. He has never kept wickets in his entire career and you suggest he keeps wickets. This is not the way to treat a former captain and senior,” Hesson was quoted by news agency PTI as telling reporters.
“Firstly, Babar Azam is not seen as a wicketkeeping option, no,” Hesson said. “Not sure where that came from, but I have heard that speculation. Babar is competing for one of the opening positions at the moment. But obviously we have Fakhar (Zaman) and Saim (Ayub) in those two roles at the moment, so he’s competing for that,” he added.
Babar needs to improve T20I strike rate, says Hesson
Hesson, however, added that Babar, who need just nine more runs to surpass Rohit Sharma as the highest run-scorer in the T20I format, needed to work on his strike rate if he was to have an extended run with the Pakistan team in 20-over cricket.
“No doubt strike rate is important in T20 cricket but you have to combine it with a volume of runs. There’s a good reason why our ranking in T20 cricket is as low as it is, because our strike rates from a batting point of view are not high enough,” Hesson continued.
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More Shorts“We certainly made some shifts in that last series to play a more expansive game of cricket and probably catch up with the rest of the world, as that is the way the modern game is.
“Babar is one of many who have the ability to make those improvements. And I’m here to work with them and help them. In the last month or so, he’s made some really good changes. It’s not just a matter of going from 125 to 150, it’s a matter of increasing what you can offer because we’re no doubt often 30-40 runs short with the bat. So, we need to find a way of getting that,” he added.
Pakistan squad for the T20I series in Bangladesh: Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Sufyan Moqim.