3 reasons why Pakistan dropping Babar Azam from 2nd Test vs England is one of the all-time horror decisions
Pakistan men's and women's cricket have endured multiple bad decisions in the 24 years of this century. But a new selectors' group dropping former men's captain Babar Azam after the first Test against England in Multan tops them all.
Babar's white-ball teammate Fakhar Zaman compared it to India's attitude towards Virat Kohli during his lean phase after 2019, where a big share of the fanbase had turned against the right-hander. Although the comparison is exaggerated -- Kohli continued to score crucial 50s for three years -- it isn't completely wrong.
Below, we explain in three points why it is and can prove to be the worst decision from the stakeholders and how it can put an already muddled team so deep into despair that even a series win without Babar would not be able to rescue them.
#3 Babar Azam has become the scapegoat for a bigger mess in the team
Babar has been in one of his worst phases of form since his debut for Pakistan. He averages just 21 in the last nine Tests and even on the flat Multan track, he looked woefully out of touch, scoring just 35 runs in total. That's far below what Pakistan or any country can expect from its best batter.
That would be roughly the side of the decision-makers. And they won't be wrong.
But a deeper look would reveal their negligence. Babar hasn't been left out from the playing 11 but he has been removed from the squad in the middle of a Test series at home. If he was always this expendable, he could have been left out before the series. When that didn't happen, they could've given him a final go of two more Tests, with clear communication that his place was in danger.
In this sense, Fakhar's assessment rings true. No player is above the team but communication and no embarrassing snubs during a home series is the bare minimum respect you can offer one of your biggest match-winners.
Not just Babar, they have dropped the two other important but out-of-form players: Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah. It would have been understandable had these three been the worst performers in an otherwise well-functioning team.
But Pakistan hasn't lost three consecutive home Tests because of three players. Apart from perhaps Mohammad Rizwan, no other batter has been able to contribute significantly to the batting department. This includes skipper Shan Masood, who averaged 28.53 with the bat before the first Test.
Moreover, the PCB hasn't made life easy for Babar and Shaheen by hurriedly switching captaincy between them across formats, which has also divided a relatively friendly dressing room until two years ago. It's not a mere coincidence that Babar's on-field troubles have coincided with PCB's mess off-field.
Dropping him at this stage makes him the scapegoat for all the struggling players in the team who have been spared. Not to mention the pressure they and Babar's batting replacement would face in the second Test.
#2 Sends the wrong message to the team and creates instability
It tells you a lot about the rotten walls behind the scenes that the decision was made by a selection committee formed only two days ago.
It comprised former cricketers Aaqib Javed, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, former ICC Elite Panel umpire Aleem Dar and analyst Hassan Cheema and the Test captain and head coach, with each officially having equal votes. But according to ESPNcricnfo, the captain and head coach weren't consulted in this call.
In simple terms, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appointed new selectors in the middle of a Test series who broke the rules in their first decision. Both the skipper Masood and coach Jason Gillespie have spoken highly of Babar in the last two years and there's a good chance they'd have voted against his snub.
A decision like this creates a massive chasm between the team and the selectors. Such gaps are generally bridged by the coaches but it seems to be non-existent in Pakistan. It sends an unnecessarily hard-handed signal of fear to the team.
To continue the point about the pressure the remaining players would face in the team -- how can Gillespie and Masood possibly give a youngster assurances and freedom, when they don't even know if he would stay in the team if he fails?
The team has been told that the coach and captain's decisions aren't valued. How, then, are the remaining players supposed to trust them and their input? Taking out the most experienced players and cutting powers of the coach and the captain leaves a team full of young and confused minds asked to fend for themselves.
#1 Creates a distraction from wider issues
The decision to drop Babar, Naseem and Shaheen also tells the cricket audience in Pakistan and outside that they were the problem. But their indifferent forms were only the tip of the mess that is the PCB and those running it.
For starters, the current PCB regime, like the previous ones is only a couple more bad games from a change. Two members of the last selection committee were fired only after a couple of failures -- so there's no guarantee that the one that dropped Babar would even be there as it is by the end of this series.
And the thing about PCB chiefs and selectors is that every time one group goes out and a new one comes in, the latter tries to make big calls -- like dropping Babar -- to give a semblance of work. Then they would be changed and a third group would come in and perhaps reverse the calls made by the last one, just to show they are different and cater to the other section of fans.
Deeper issues in domestic cricket and the board's constitution are ignored by all. Even still, as people and media speak about Babar and no-Babar during the second Test, the defaulters would be allowed to cook up another scapegoat.
It's a vicious cycle going on for ages. It's a series of distractions and blame-shifting with no accountability that not one or two but all systems are failing simultaneously. Whatever performances Babar and his teammates have been able to put up have been so despite the issues in the board.
The fact that this has gone to the height that even someone like Babar isn't safe -- and is being pushed further into personal instability, which might affect his game even more -- suggests that Pakistan cricket might be close to a point of no return.