"Have to bear with...": Shan Masood drops bombshell on Babar Azam's poor form

Pakistan National Cricket Team skipper Shan Masood dropped a massive statement on the form of the struggling superstar batsman Babar Azam after the conclusion of the two-match Test series against Bangladesh National Cricket Team at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

Pakistan National Cricket Team faced an embarrassing 0-2 whitewash at the hands of Bangladesh National Cricket Team, which was the first-ever Test series loss of the side against the Bangla Tigers.

Not only this, Pakistan have been struggling in international cricket for a significant period of time across all three formats and one of the major reasons behind that has been a dip in the form of star batsman Babar Azam.

Babar Azam enjoyed a great run in international cricket for years and during his purple patch, he created and shattered many records across formats and skyrocketed in the ICC Test, ODI, and T20I rankings.

However, that purple patch ended last year, and a lean patch has begun for Babar Azam. The star batsman has not been able to score runs consistently, especially in red-ball cricket.

The 29-year-old looked awful in the Test series against Bangladesh National Cricket Team. In the first Test at a batting-friendly track, Babar Azam returned with scores of 0 and 22, and in the second Test at the same venue, he registered scores of 31 and 11.

Overall, in Tests, Babar Azam has gone 16 innings without hitting a fifty, and since January 2023, he has scored just 317 runs from eight Tests at an average of 21.13, with his best score being 41.

Speaking about Babar Azam's poor form after the Test series against the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side, captain Shan Masood said that they will have to bear with the failures of some players, including Babar Azam, and need to give them longer rope to improve. Shan Masood said:

"We will have to work on bringing in consistency in selection. You will have to bear with players' failures. It’s not just about Babar Azam, the more consistently you give a chance to someone, the better he will perform."

You will have to search where you will get that player who can be an automatic selection - Shan Masood

Masood also highlighted the need to look for players who can become an automatic selection based on form. He also backed Mohsin Naqvi's statement, saying that they don't have a big pool of players to select from.

"You will have to search where you will get that player who can be an automatic selection on the current form. Since we’re not playing red-ball cricket currently, we don’t have many options to pick from. We played the same team which we took to Australia and was successful for Pakistan domestically and at international level,” Masood said.

Shan Masood, at the press conference, also issued an apology to the fans and took responsibility for the defeat.

“As I told you after the first Test, I once again take full responsibility for the loss. I apologise to my nation and I did in the previous game as well. Our common goal should be to improve our game. Whenever we don’t play well, we will raise our hands and accept it gracefully,” he added.