{"id":5919,"date":"2025-08-17T18:11:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T18:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/17\/stop-calling-them-key-players-former-pakistan-captain-attacks-babar-and-rizwan-cricket-news\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T18:11:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T18:11:22","slug":"stop-calling-them-key-players-former-pakistan-captain-attacks-babar-and-rizwan-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/17\/stop-calling-them-key-players-former-pakistan-captain-attacks-babar-and-rizwan-cricket-news\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Stop Calling Them Key Players’: Former Pakistan Captain Attacks Babar And Rizwan | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Babar and Rizwan were left out of Pakistan’s 17-member Asia Cup 2025 squad on Sunday, August 17.<\/h2>\n
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Mohammad Hafeez attacks Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. (Picture Credit: AFP)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Former captains Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan suffered a big setback on Sunday (August 17) when they were ignored by Pakistani selectors for a place in Men in Green\u2019s 17-member Asia Cup 2025 squad. Babar and Rizwan are the top two run-getters for Pakistan in T20Is, but they haven\u2019t played a T20I match for them in 2025. Many believed that for the premier continental event, the duo would be back in the team, but on Sunday, they were left out again along with fast bowler Naseem Shah.<\/p>\n

Babar and Rizwan\u2019s axe from the squad is the talk of the cricket world on Sunday. Many former greats and experts of the game have expressed concern over Pakistan\u2019s selection committee\u2019s decision, but former captain and star all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez is not surprised, and in fact, according to him, Babar and Rizwan are not key players for Pakistan any more.<\/p>\n

He went on to say that calling Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan will be unfair and wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalling them (Babar and Rizwan) key players would be wrong and unfair. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are not Pakistan cricket\u2019s key players at the moment. Key players are those who win matches for Pakistan,” Hafeez said on his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we look at the past year and a half to two years, the players showing consistent performance are Salman Ali Agha, Saim Ayub and Hasan Nawaz. Why aren\u2019t we talking about them? They are the current players winning matches for Pakistan,” he added.<\/p>\n

Hafeez feels Babar and Rizwan need to prove themselves as good players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Babar and Rizwan need to be concerned about their positions in the team. They need to prove themselves as good players first; key players come later. Both were good in the past, but now they are not delivering results,” he remarked.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth need to be fully involved in the game; otherwise, results won\u2019t come. The same goes for Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi; they are also not giving match-winning performances for Pakistan,” he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should focus on players who can contribute for the next 10\u201315 years. Our media criticises one or two players and hypes one or two others, which is wrong. We need to talk about those who are actually performing,” he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to improve Pakistan cricket, those in the AC rooms and those executing plans on the ground must address these issues promptly,” he concluded.<\/p>\n

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Last Updated:August 17, 2025, 23:01 IST Babar and Rizwan were left out of Pakistan’s 17-member Asia Cup 2025 squad on Sunday, August 17. Mohammad Hafeez attacks Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. (Picture Credit: AFP) Former captains Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan suffered a big setback on Sunday (August 17) when they were ignored by Pakistani…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}