Babar Azam Should Be Playing In IPL: Nasser Hussain

Former England captain turned cricket pundit Nasser Hussain has expressed his desired on India-Pakistan resuming their bilateral ties and Pakistan cricketers taking part in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Pakistan players featured in the IPL during the inaugural edition but after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the political relations between the countries have turned sour, disallowing them to feature in the lucrative tournament.

Pakistan Cricket Board has time and again shown their keenness on resuming the ties but their counter-part look least interested to do so. Cricket legends like Sunil Gavaskar had also said that both the countries might never resume their bi-lateral ties again. However, Nasser Hussain believes, with the IPL soon to start a phenomenal player like Babar Azam should be plying his trade in the lucrative tournament.

“It’s the Pakistani players not being in the IPL. The IPL will start soon and Babar Azam won’t be there. He’s a phenomenal player and he should be there,” Hussain was quoted as saying by Geo Super.

Citing the examples of Premier League derbies, Hussain said that, keeping aside the politics a India-Pakistan clash is as good as Manchester United playing Manchester City or Liverpool against Everton or a North London derby between Spurs and Arsenal.

“I don’t want to get into the politics of it but India and Pakistan not playing each other is like the Premier League with Manchester City not playing Manchester United, or Everton-Liverpool or Spurs and Arsenal”, Nasser Hussain commented.

Azam is currently on national duty for the Test series against England, which Pakistan trails 1-0. Azam missed out on an opportunity to score a century in the first Test as he could not convert his start to a big score. In the second Test, he will resume Day 2 shortly, on 25 runs off 51 deliveries with Mohammad Rizwan on the other end.

Meanwhile, the IPL 2020 will get underway from September 19 with its final being played on November 10. The lucrative tournament will be played for the second time in UAE. However, the fixtures are still to be confirmed, but it looks like Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will face off against Mumbai Indians in the inaugural contest.