'We've Made A Mockery Of Ourselves': Ex-PAK Captain Questions Decision To Drop Babar Azam

Former Pakistan women’s cricket team captain Javeria Khan took to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday to slam the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after it dropped Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Naseem Shah for the last two Tests of the ongoing three-match series against England. According to Javeria, who announced her retirement from international cricket earlier this year, PCB is making mockery of Pakistan in the world of cricket.

She feels Pakistan doesn’t deserve a player like Babar Azam, as it can’t respect him. Babar was axed from the side after he failed to score a fifty in his last 18 Test innings. But the decision to drop star batter hasn’t gone down well with many former greats and experts of the game in Pakistan.

Taking to X, Javeria wrote, “We have made a mockery of ourselves in the world of cricket. Systems that don’t respect players like Babar Azam should really not have players like him. No athlete can ever perform with an exhausted mindset, leg pulling, social media trials, and pressure to perform all the time.”

The 36-year-old former cricketer, who played in 116 ODIs and 112 T20Is for Women in Green, said if the board wanted to rest Babar, Shaheen, and Naseem, then the decision should have been taken at the start of the series and not in the middle after the side has lost one match.

“The decision to rest your premier players is taken at the start of the series, not in the middle. Had it been taken before, it would have benefitted the players and communicated a positive msg. Apparently, these four players don’t need rest. It is the system that needs to reset its mindset. Very disappointed and sad to see Pakistan cricket going down the hill,” she added in her tweet, which is now going viral on the internet.

Babar, who resigned from Test captaincy last year in November, scored 30 and five runs for the Shan Masood-led side in the first Test, which Pakistan lost by an innings and 47 runs margin at the Multan Cricket Stadium in Multan last week.