‘No Babar. No crowd,’ says former cricketer ahead of Bangladesh T20Is

KARACHI: Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali on Friday, made a major assertion regarding the upcoming three-match T20I series against Bangladesh, scheduled to be played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore from May 28 to June 1.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday, unveiled a 16-member squad for the aforementioned series, excluding several senior players including former captains Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Babar’s absence, in particular, did not sit well with former cricketer Ali, who claimed that it would result in a low turnout during the Bangladesh series, which will be played at the star batter’s home ground.

“No Babar. No crowd against Bangladesh. What will happen in Lahore?” questioned Ali in a post on microblogging website X, formerly Twitter.

The right-handed batter, who led Pakistan in three ICC Men’s T20 World Cups in 2021, 2022 and 2024, last represented Pakistan in the shortest format in December last year and has been out of favour since then.

He was also overlooked for the green shirts’ most recent T20I series against New Zealand, played in March this year.

For the unversed, Babar had been going through a rough patch in the format as he could not a half-century since his 75-run knock in the third T20I against Ireland in May last year.

Overall, Babar has thus far represented Pakistan in 128 T20Is, scoring 4223 runs at a decent average of 39.83 with the help of three hundreds and 36 half-centuries.

Pakistan squad for T20I series against Bangladesh: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wicketkeeper), and Saim Ayub.