Saud Shakeel reveals Pakistan cricketers don't care about Babar Azam's resignation as captain

Pakistan National Cricket Team Test vice-captain Saud Shakeel has made a huge revelation, saying that there were no discussions in the dressing room among the Pakistani cricketers about Babar Azam's resignation as the skipper.

Saud Shakeel also revealed that there are no tensions in the Pakistan team and the dressing room environment is quite healthy ahead of the all-important three-match Test series against England National Cricket Team.

Babar Azam Stepped Down As Pakistan Captain

On October 2, Babar Azam shocked the cricket world as he took to his official X handle to announce that he had decided to step down from the white-ball captaincy.

In the post, Babar Azam said that he was honored to lead the national team, but added that he decided to quit captaincy to focus on his personal growth and improve his batting performance.

Notably, this was the second time in 12 months that Babar Azam quit captaincy, as after the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023, he was sacked as the white-ball captain, and he himself relinquished the red-ball captaincy.

Later, Babar Azam was reappointed as T20I captain as PCB sacked Shaheen Afridi just after one series. However, the performance of Babar as captain didn't improve after his reappointment and Pakistan kept struggling, which forced the batter to give up the leadership role again.

If a selector resigns, it’s his personal decision and Babar’s decision is also personal and is in white-ball cricket - Saud Shakeel

Meanwhile, the Test vice-captain Saud Shakeel asserted that the decision of Mohammad Yousuf and Babar Azam to step down from their roles as a selector and skipper is their personal one, and it hasn't had any impact on the red-ball team.

“If a selector resigns, it’s his personal decision and Babar’s decision is also personal and is in white-ball cricket. So, it doesn’t make a difference as both things are related to different formats. The red-ball team won’t be affected, and we didn’t discuss it in our setup either as a group. The environment is healthy,” Shakeel said in a press conference.

England always play attacking cricket, and that always gives you an opportunity to... - Saud Shakeel

Saud Shakeel and Babar Azam will be next seen in action in the three-match Test series against the England National Cricket Team, and both will have to play a crucial role in helping Pakistan win the series.

Recently, Pakistan under the leadership of Shan Masood faced a shocking 0-2 defeat at the hands of the Bangladesh National Cricket Team at home and a series defeat against England could lead to significant changes in the red-ball setup.

Meanwhile, Shakeel echoed his coach Jason Gillespie's comments, saying that they want to use England's bazball against them in the series. Saud Shakeel feels that England playing aggressively will give Pakistan enough opportunities to induce the Three Lions into making mistakes. He elaborated:

"England always play attacking cricket, and that always gives you an opportunity to induce mistakes in them, and to use their mistakes to stay in the game," Shakeel said at a press conference in Multan.

"We're struggling with the bat from time to time, and unable to convert starts into huge scores. That's a point of concern. The series that's over is now in the past. Admittedly we didn't play well there. Our focus is on what's ahead.

"But we don't follow any particular style playing cricket, we play according to the requirement of any situation, which gives us flexibility."