Pakistan coach addresses reports about Babar Azam's wicketkeeper role

Pakistan white-ball coach Mike Hesson has broken his silence on reports about his discussion with Babar Azam to take up the wicketkeeper role.

Reports emerged in recent days that the Pakistan coach had asked the star batter to take up an additional skill to make a comeback to the national T20I side.

The former Pakistan captain last played for the national side in the shorter format against South Africa in 2024.

He, along with Mohammad Rizwan, was sidelined from the T20I over what is believed to be their inability to adapt to modern cricket.

Babar Azam missed out on the recent T20I home series against Bangladesh and is not part of the squad for the upcoming away series against the side.

However, Babar Azam was among the national cricketers called up to the Pakistan training camp.

In a chat with the media following the training camp, Mike Hesson denied having asked the former Pakistan captain to take up the role of wicketkeeper in the shorter format.

“Babar Azam is not seen as a wicketkeeping option. Not sure where that came from, but I have heard that speculation. Babar is competing for one of the opening positions at the moment,” the Pakistan coach said.

He added, “But obviously we have Fakhar [Zaman] and Saim [Ayub] in those two roles at the moment, so he’s competing for that.”

When asked about the emphasis on the strike-rate in the T20 format, Mike Hesson said he only wanted Pakistan to catch up with the rest of the international sides in their approach.

“No doubt strike rate is important in T20 cricket but you have to combine it with a volume of runs,” Hesson said. “Babar is one of many who have the ability to make those improvements. And I’m here to work with them and help them. In the last month or so, he’s made some really good changes.”