With a new chairman and an interim selection committee put in place days before the start of the New Zealand Test series at home, Pakistan cricket is going through a period of transition. Najam Sethi is back with the Pakistan Cricket Board as their chief replacing Ramiz Raja while former captain Shahid Afridi will lead a three-man selection panel.
Afridi has already started making his presence felt adding three bowlers to the Pakistan Test squad for the New Zealand series, a couple of days before the series opener in Karachi.
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There have been rumours that Sethi isn’t a fan of Babar Azam continuing as the Test captain following a spate of defeats in home series, the latest being a historic clean sweep at the hands of England.
Babar is quietly observing the off-field developments but isn’t worried about them and instead has his eyes trained on doing well in the New Zealand series.
“In the past 3-4 days, a lot of things have changed,” Babar told reporters on Sunday. “As a professional, you have to face such situations but our job is to perform on the ground and give our best. These are off field issues and our focus is on the ground – how to win, how to start the series well and perform well across departments. In our last series, we weren’t able to perform well, little mistakes kept us behind. We will try to rectify them and play good cricket.”
Mir Hamza, Sajid Khan and Shahnawaz Dahani were added to a 16-man squad on Saturday and Babar said the decision was taken after having discussions with him.
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“Definitely, there was a discussion with me. And we debated how to move forward. They have their own mindset and we held discussions around that. I gave my opinion and we took the best possible call,” he said.
So is he worried about the off-field drama?
“To be honest, these things don’t put me under pressure. God has brought me this far and will continue guiding me forward. I have belief in myself, teammates. I accept we haven’t played good cricket but putting yourself under pressure will negatively impact game. I have full confidence, we will come back,” Babar said.
He also addressed the criticism of his defensive approach against England who persisted with their attacking brand of cricket under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum and returned home with a 3-0 series sweep.
“Everyday I have to clarify this. I try to take the best possible decision as per the situation and execute my plans. Fielding is set as per the bowlers. Depends on the opposition as well. Cannot respond with attacking cricket when the other team is doing something different. People then will ask why wasn’t I defensive? From outside it may seem different. From inside it’s not the same,” he said.
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