Aakash Chopra reacts to Babar Azam being dropped by Pakistan vs England

Ever since Babar Azam has been dropped from Pakistan's team for the last two Tests against England, the cricketing fraternity has been expressing their views on the shocking decision. Babar is arguably the most high-profile player in Pakistan cricket currently.

Despite his poor form, he was not expected to be dropped since he is Pakistan's premier batter. Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has now reacted to this decision and shared his views. Chopra claimed that Babar had been made the scapegoat this time after Pakistan's poor performance in the first Test.

Chopra also argued whether the replacement of Babar Azam would be better than him or not. He questioned the PCB's decision to drop the country's premier cricketer after some public outcry.

Also read: Sarfaraz Ahmed sits in the meeting to drop Babar Azam; gets dropped from Pakistan team in the next meeting

Aakash Chopra reacts to PCB's shocking decision to drop Babar Azam

While speaking in a video on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra spoke about the embarrassing defeat and claimed that the PCB had to find a scapegoat to cover the problems. He noted that Babar Azam had a reputation of being the GOAT player but has been unable to perform like one.

"It's not a scapegoat this time, they said they will cut the GOAT itself because if we talk about Pakistan, Babar Azam's reputation was made and enhanced like a GOAT player. It used to be said that the king would do it but the runs weren't getting scored, there is no doubt about that," Chopra said.

Babar Azam registered scores of 30 and 5 across both the innings in the first Test at Multan. He has not been able to cross the fifty-run mark since the last 18 Test innings. He has averaged just 20.33 in the last nine Tests.

Aakash Chopra questions Babar Azam's replacement

Aakash Chopra further questioned about the replacement of Babar and whether he would be better than him or not. He argued about PCB's reason for dropping the star Pakistan batter from the team and questioned whether he had been made the scapegoat this time.

"My question is when you drop him and bring someone else in, is he better than him? That's the first question. The second question is that you cannot score runs or regain your form by sitting outside. Was it the right time or since the public outcry was so much, you said that you had to make someone a scapegoat?" Chopra argued.

The former India opener was also against comparing Babar Azam's lean patch with the one of Virat Kohli. He claimed that players like Kohli, Rohit, and Bumrah even contribute when they are not in form.

"Some people are comparing and saying that India didn't drop Virat. Let's not compare. Babar Azam was going in Virat Kohli's path but that road is far. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah can afford a longer lean patch, and they are contributing even in their lean patch," Chopra explained.

Recently, Fakhar Zaman came out in Babar Azam's support by saying that the board should not drop him since he is their premier batter.

Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah also dropped

Babar Azam has been going through the worst phase of his career right now. The 29-year-old has been struggling for runs even on flat batting wickets like Multan. Along with him, fast bowlers Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah were also dropped from the squad for the last two Tests.

Shaheen and Babar are also some of the high-profile names in Pakistan cricket but are going through a rough patch in the last few games. The second Test of the series will be played from October 15-19 at Multan on the same pitch.