'Absolutely stupid decision': Michael Vaughan criticises PCB for dropping Babar Azam

Former England cricket team captain Michael Vaughan has criticized the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for dropping Babar Azam from the squad for the second and third Test matches against England.

In a post on X, Vaughan called it an “absolutely stupid decision” to remove the team’s best player after losing just one match in the series.

So Pakistan haven’t won in a while .. Go 1 nil down in the series and decide to drop the best player in @babarazam258 .. I guess Pakistan cricket is full of surprises but this tops the lot .. absolutely stupid decision .. unless he has asked for a break !!!

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) October 13, 2024

“Pakistan haven’t won in a while, go 1-0 down in the series and decide to drop their best player in Babar Azam. I guess Pakistan cricket is full of surprises, but this tops the lot… absolutely stupid decision, unless he has asked for a break!!!”

Pakistan on Sunday left out Azam from the second Test squad after a poor run of form where he has failed to pass fifty in his last 18 Test innings.

It is the first time Azam has been dropped from the Pakistan team since his white-ball debut against Zimbabwe in Lahore in 2015 and Test baptism against the West Indies a year later.

Babar Azam shot to prominence with three successive hundreds in an ODI series against the West Indies in 2016.

He replaced India great Virat Kohli as world number one ODI batsman five years later, a place he still occupies having been briefly deposed in between.

He is still ranked fourth among Twenty20 batsmen but it is the long format where his form has suffered the most and his slump has seen him fall outside the world’s top 10.