"Babar Azam should take a break from Cricket"- Ahmed Shehzad on the India vs Pakistan eve

Pakistan's discarded opener Ahmed Shehzad is known for his fearless comments regarding the performance of the Pakistan team and the team's star cricketers. This time, Shehzad has taken a brutal dig at the country's star cricketer Babar Azam for his poor batting form.

During a general conversation, Ahmed Shehzad asked Babar Azam to take a break from cricket just to regain form. Babar has been struggling for form in the last few months which has raised questions over his place in the team.

The 30-year-old batter, who was once called as one of the best that the country has ever produced, is struggling for runs which is affecting his team as well. With the big match against India next, Pakistan is hoping for their talismanic batter to return to form.

Also read: Babar Azam ruled out of IND vs PAK!! Matchday report reveals no confirmation on participation

Ahmed Shehzad takes a brutal dig at Babar Azam

During a discussion on the show called 'Hasna Mana Hai' on Pakistan's Geo News, Pakistan's three international cricketers Mohammad Amir, Rashid Latif, and Ahmed Shehzad discussed the team's chances against India.

As Babar Azam didn't attend the team's practice session, the panelists claimed that the break is important for a player to refresh himself before the big match. Ahmed Shehzad agreed and called break an "important" thing for a professional player.

Shehzad further called Babar to take a break from cricket to regain his form. He feels that a no. of players have suggested taking a break earlier and asked Babar to think about this step.

"Sometimes, break is important. It's not only important to take a break from practice, he (Babar Azam) must a break from cricket as well. When you are playing for so long, the break is important. Many players have already suggested this thing previously. He should think about this," Shehzad said.

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Babar Azam's ODI numbers

Babar Azam is one of the best players from Pakistan currently. However, the star cricketer hasn't been in good form across formats. Due to his poor form, he was even dropped from the Test team midway through the series against England at home.

However, he was persisted for Pakistan's ODI team due to his sensational numbers in the format. Babar has scored 6083 runs in 127 ODIs at an average of 55.80 and a strike rate of 87.91 with 19 hundreds and 35 fifties.

Recently, he also became the joint-fastest to reach the milestone of 6000 runs in ODI cricket as he achieved the feat in 123 innings. He is opening the batting in this tournament rather than playing at his usual No. 3 spot where he has scored the bulk of his runs throughout his career.

In the first match of the Champions Trophy, Babar scored 64 off 90 balls and coped a huge amount of criticism for his slow knock. Pakistan were chasing 321 runs to win and Babar's knock pushed his team back rather than moving them towards the target.

Important game for Pakistan

Pakistan will be under pressure going into the match against India. The match will be played on February 23 in Dubai. Despite Pakistan being the hosts, the match is being held in Dubai after India refused to travel to Pakistan which forced the ICC to opt for a hybrid model for this tournament.

Pakistan started the tournament poorly as they lost to New Zealand by 60 runs. This makes the upcoming match very important for them as they need to win at any cost. On the other hand, India started brilliantly by winning the first game against Bangladesh.

There is some suspense about Babar Azam's availability since the batter didn't attend the team's practice session ahead of the match. However, the head coach Aaqib Javed denied any injury concerns and claimed that Babar had opted to rest himself ahead of the big game.