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Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson (right) talks to batter Babar Azam during their training session at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo on February 17, 2026. \u2014 ICC<\/p>\n
COLOMBO: Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson addressed Babar Azam’s batting snub in the high-stakes ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 group-stage match against Namibia by citing his below-hundred powerplay strike rate in the mega event.<\/p>\n
Babar, who has 66 runs to his name in three innings at a modest strike rate of 115.78, managed to retain his spot in the 2009 champions’ lineup for the must-win Namibia fixture despite the criticism following his scratchy seven-ball five in a gruelling 61-run defeat at the hands of arch-rivals India last Sunday.<\/p>\n
The right-handed batter, who has been batting at No.4 since Pakistan’s three-match home series against Australia, however, could not bat in the high-stakes fixture as youngster Khawaja Nafay and all-rounder Shadab Khan were promoted over him.<\/p>\n
The batting demotion and eventual snub prompted cricket fans to question his role in the team, and the query was consequently escalated to head coach Hesson during his media briefing on the eve of the Green Shirts’ first Super Eights match against New Zealand, scheduled to be played here at the R Premadasa Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Hesson, in response, insisted that the 31-year-old was not suited to bat at No.4 against Namibia as they were well-placed at 107\/2 in 12.1 overs, with opener Sahibzada Farhan set in the middle.<\/p>\n
“The other day, we got to the 12th over mark. And at that point, Babar Azam is not the best person to come in; we’ve got plenty of other options who can come in and perform that role towards the end,” Hesson told reporters. <\/p>\n
“And Babar is actually the first to acknowledge that, he knows that he’s got a certain set of skills that the team require. And there are certain times where other players can perform their role more efficiently,” he added.<\/p>\n
Hesson further addressed the concerns regarding Babar batting at No.4 instead of his preferred opening slot, stating that he was brought back into the team after the ACC Men’s T20 Asia Cup 2025 heartbreak, specifically to bat in the middle, considering his ability to anchor the innings in the phase.<\/p>\n
“I think Babar is well aware that his strike rate in the power play in the World Cup is less than 100 and that’s clearly not the role we think we need,” Hesson said.<\/p>\n
“We brought Babar back in for a specific role post the Asia Cup,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson (right) talks to batter Babar Azam during their training session at the Sinhalese…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[43],"tags":[50654,54964,50176,102,4061,1232],"class_list":["post-96077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-namibia","tag-babar-azam","tag-batting-snub","tag-mike-hesson","tag-namibia","tag-pakistan","tag-t20-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116106528547024491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}