Ahmed Shehzad takes a U-Turn; jumps to Babar Azam's rescue citing the batsman is suffering mentally

Discarded Pakistan batter Ahmed Shehzad feels Babar Azam has been mentally drained after receiving so much criticism around the world in the last few months.

Shehzad reckons that Babar has been playing regular cricket for the past few years due to which is mentally exhausted.

Babar Azam is going through the worst time of his cricket career currently. the star Pakistan batter had a disappointing series against Bangladesh recently in which he scored just 64 runs in 4 innings at an average of 16.

Not only his batting, but his captaincy is also under severe danger. Babar is currently Pakistan's captain in white-ball cricket but the team's performances have only gone downhill. In the T20 World Cup 2024 in June, Pakistan failed to go past the first stage of the tournament.

Also read: Wasim Akram breaks silence on Pakistan's Test series defeat to Bangladesh

Ahmed Shehzad feels Babar Azam is mentally drained

in a recent video, Ahmed Shehzad spoke about the issues with Babar that have affected his performances so badly. Shehzad reckons that Babar has been playing regularly for the past few years and it has taken a toll on him and he is mentally drained now.

"After removing Babar Azam from Test captaincy, it has been decided that he will be removed from the white-ball captaincy as well, according to Geo News. His performance as a captain and as a player is in front of the world," Shehzad said.

"Now the question arises what the actual problem is? Is it Babar Azam the captain or Babar Azam the player? According to me, the problem is not his captaincy. He has been playing regular cricket for the past 5-6 years and he is mentally drained now," he added.

Hypocrisy at its peak!!!

This man always criticized Babar Azam, try to ruin him amd his career and now all of sudden he has soft spot for him??? Games of Views and Money 🤑🤑#BabarAzam𓃵 #PakistanCricket pic.twitter.com/kya6pjLEjK

— Babar Azam's World (@Babrazam358) September 7, 2024

Recently, Geo News reported that Babar Azam is likely to be removed as Pakistan's captain for ODIs and T20Is. Wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan is seen as his replacement.

Ahmed Shehzad raises questions about Babar Azam's fitness

Shehzad also feels that every player can take criticism and Babar's capacity has ended. He also raised question marks over Babar Azam's fitness standards.

"He (Babar Azam) has been the captain of Pakistan for so long time, he has led Pakistan in four World Cups, and 2 Asia Cups. He has been scrutinized so much. Every person can take criticism. At a certain time when the trolling gets too much, then your mind stops working and you come under pressure," Shehzad noted.

"Then if you have made mistakes yourself and not maintained your fitness standards, things become even more difficult," the opener added.

Babar's captaincy has been under the scanner since the 2023 ODi World Cup in India. Some of his decisions to back out of form players in the Pakistan team have backfired and all the blame has been put on Babar.

Pakistan's next white-ball series will be in November when they tour Australia for three ODIs and three T20Is. A decision on Babar's future as Pakistan captain is likely to be taken soon.