Dubai, Feb 23: Pakistan’s star batter Babar Azam was conspicuous by his absence from the team’s training and there was no clarity on his availability for the Champions Trophy clash against India here on Sunday even as the country’s cricket board chief Mohsin Naqvi urged the side to win “at any cost”.
Speculation was rife that he might be not be considered for the match after he was not seen at the practice session on Saturday evening. The practice was attended by PCB chief Naqvi and Azam was the only player who chose to take the day off.
Azam copped a lot of criticism for a 94-ball 64 in the 60-run loss to New zealand in the opening match. He was lambasted for failing to accelerate while the asking rate crept up in the chase of 320 runs in Karachi.
Interim head coach Aqib Javed, who addressed the media after practice, did not give any specific reason for Azam’s absence, saying that the former captain chose to rest.
Last night, Naqvi met the Pakistan cricket team at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, and urged them to win Sunday’s crucial match against India “at any cost” to silence critics.
The team was scheduled to practice for about two hours but the proceedings were halted within an hour as Naqvi took “stock of things”, met captain Mohammad Rizwan and head coach Aqeeb Javed and discussed cricketing matters with them.
It has learnt been through reliable sources that he urged the captain, coach and players to give it their best shot against India and win the match to “silence their critics, including himself.” He was seen having a long chat with pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf. (PTI)
