"I told Babar Azam to play"- Jason Gillespie breaks silence after Pakistan Cricket row

Pakistan Test Coach Jason Gillespie has shared a key piece of advice that he gave to Babar Azam for the forthcoming Test series against Bangladesh. Jason Gillespie took the role of Head Coach for Pakistan in Tests recently and aims for a good show against Bangladesh.

Jason Gillespie is also concerned about the workload of Pakistan pacers. Pakistan is set to host Bangladesh for two Tests in August. The Pakistan vs Bangladesh Test series will witness two games from August 21 and August 30.

Play freely! Jason Gillespie's key advice to Babar Azam for Bangladesh Tests

While the opening game takes place in Rawalpindi, the next game takes place at National Cricket Stadium in Karachi. During a chat with Pakistan reporters, the former Australia seamer shared his plans for the Bangladesh series. The former right-arm pacer said he asked Babar Azam to play freely

“In Lahore, I had conversations with Babar Azam and Naseem Shah. I told Babar to play his natural game freely,” he was quoted as saying by Pakistan Cricket.

The Aussie bowling legend also added that since Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah play for Pakistan in all three formats, their workloads should be managed. According to Gillespie, they should get more rest and play only important games.

“Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah are multi-format cricketers and also participate in franchise cricket. They cannot play every match. We will try to give them rest in relatively less important matches", he added.

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Shaheen has bowled three times more than Mitchell Starc: Jason Gillespie

Jason Gillespie also compared Mitchell Starc and Shaheen Afridi and noted that the latter bowled three times more than the former last year. Notably, Shaheen Afridi was also made the T20I skipper for a brief period at the start of 2024 but Babar Azam was renamed as the captain ahead of ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

"Over the past year, Shaheen has bowled three times more than Mitchell Starc. How can he manage such a workload? We need to take care of him,” he added.

Under his stint, Jason Gillespie also aims to put less pressure on batters by creating backups for the Test team. He also added that Shan Masood will lead the Test side.

“We will also assess the pressure on the batters. We aim to prepare backups. We mentioned that a camp will be set up from August 6 for preparations for the series against Bangladesh. We will announce the problems for the series by the end of this month. It has not been decided yet who will be given rest”, he noted.

“Shan Masood will lead the Test team. He is currently playing county cricket in England. Although we have not met, we stay in touch over the phone,” Gillespie further added.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is also set to tour England after the Bangladesh Test series in October 2024, where they will play three Tests.

Later, they will travel to Australia for three ODIs and three T20Is. Earlier, there were reports that Shan Masood might be replaced as a Test skipper for Bangladesh's series but it did not happen.