Karachi, Jul 10: Babar Azam has never kept wickets in his career and that’s why some former Pakistan players reacted with shock when white-ball team coach Mike Hesson asked the beleaguered batter to consider doubling up as stumper to regain his place in the T20 team.
Hesson apparently suggested to Babar that keeping wickets in the shortest format would guarantee his spot in the national T20 side.
The coach made the suggestion during a formal chat with senior players recently in Lahore where Babar, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi were present.
After it was reported in the Pakistan media, the likes of Rashid Latif, Basit Ali, Mohsin Khan, Moin Khan, and Sikander Bakht slammed the head coach for his suggestion.
“They are being very unfair with Babar, Rizwan and Shaheen but I can assure you these three will be back soon,” Basit said.
Mohsin said it was unfortunate to even think that Babar would have to keep wickets to play in the format.
“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,” he said.
The Pakistani players picked for the Bangladesh tour are attending a camp in Karachi and Babar, Rizwan and Shaheen, despite not being in the team, have been told to attend the camp.
Latif said that it made sense to ask Babar to modify his batting a bit but to ask him to keep wickets is strange as wicket-keeping is a specialized job.
The trio has been ignored for selection in the national T20 squad since the beginning of this year and they were also not considered for the upcoming T20 series in Bangladesh.
“Hesson had a frank discussion on why Babar, Rizwan were not being picked for the T20 team and outlined his philosophy of having multi-role players for the format. It was during the conversation that he asked Babar how he felt about keeping wickets,” a team source said. (PTI)
