The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has broken its silence on the removal of superstar batsman Babar Azam from the Test squad for the final two matches of the three-game series against the England National Cricket Team.

Cricket fans and pundits were absolutely shocked when the Pakistan Cricket Board released the squad for the second and third Tests against England because four star players were dropped from the team.

Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Sarfaraz Ahmed dropped out

Babar Azam, who is currently going through a rough patch, was released along with veteran batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed. Also, superstars Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah were not included in the squad for the matches.

In the official press release during the team announcement, PCB stated that they had rested the star players to give them time to work on their fitness, confidence and composure to make a great comeback.

From PCB’s statement, it was clear that there is a lot of chaos in Pakistan cricket, and fans felt that Babar, Shaheen, Naseem and Sarfaraz were actually dropped even though the board mentioned that they had been rested.

The PCB came under fire for this bold move, with people like Fakhar Zaman and Tanvir Ahmed, as well as several experts and former cricketers, lashing out at the cricket board.

Babar Azam has been saved from the team to give them rest so they can come back new – PCB

Later, in an official press release, an anonymous PCB spokesperson again mentioned that Babar had been rested and even tagged him as the “best batsman of his generation” in a measure of damage control.

“The Pakistan Cricket Board has said that four top players, including former captain Babar Azam, have been excluded from the team to rest them so they can return fresh,” the spokesperson’s statement read.

“Babar Azam is the best batsman of his generation and the PCB wants a mentally refreshed Babar to represent the Pakistan side in the future,” he added.

Pakistan team selection for England Tests was a challenge

The PCB spokesperson also stated that “selecting the team for the upcoming Tests against England has been a challenging task for the selectors.” Furthermore, the selection committee carefully considered the form of the players when choosing the team for the second and third Tests.

Meanwhile, Babar, Shaheen, Naseem and Sarfaraz have been replaced by Haseebullah, Mehran Mumtaz, Kamran Ghulam and Mohammad Ali in the team. Another important name missing from the team was Abrar Ahmed, who is suffering from dengue. He was replaced by Sajid Khan and Noman Ali along with Zahid Mahmood returned to the side.

Notably, the Pakistan Cricket Board was forced to take bold decisions due to the poor performance of the players in the last three Tests at home. The Men in Green had faced a whitewash at the hands of Bangladesh in the two-match Test series.

Furthermore, they lost the first Test against England by an innings and 47 runs in embarrassing fashion. Shan Masood is currently on a six-match losing streak as captain and there are reports that he was sacked after the series against England.