Babar Azam shuts PCB chairman Ramiz Raja over ‘select T20 players in Tests’ advice

Hosts Pakistan crashed to another defeat, losing by eight wickets against England on Day 4 of the third Test match in Karachi. It was also the first time that Pakistan were whitewashed at home. And for the first time in history, they lost four home Test matches in a row, one against Australia and three against England.

England have been playing Test cricket with the so-called 'Bazball' style, under the leadership of coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, which encourages fast runs and aggressive field setup in the longest format. Following the series loss, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chief Ramiz Raja gave special advice to Pakistan captain Babar Azam to feed T20 players in the Test match.

“Like England for example, I suggested to Babar that England are playing the T20 format in a five-day version, so you better pick T20 players here. It's a forced mindset on Pakistan, which I absolutely like. I want the future generation to think of it as a T20 format like England are playing,” Ramiz was quoted as saying in NDTV.

Questions will be raised no matter what: Babar Azam

Recently, on being asked about Ramiz's advice, Babar gave a befitting reply, saying that Pakistan have a plan in place for every format and that mindset cannot be changed overnight.

“The door is not shut for anyone. There is a set plan for everything and we have it for every format. You can't change things in a day or week. It takes time. For the mindset to change, it takes time. Then, if we start playing defensively, journalists will ask why we don't play aggressively and when we play aggressively, they ask why we don't play the other way. There will always be questions, you can't please everyone. Ultimately what matters is results. If results don't come then questions will be raised no matter what we do,” said the Pakistan skipper.

Apart from Babar and Saud Shakeel, Imam-ul-Haq and Agha Salman were the only other batters to score multiple 50-plus knocks. 114 of Abdullah Shafique's 213 runs came in a single innings while both Azhar Ali and Mohammad Rizwan were off-colour with the bat in hand.