‘Mindset can’t be changed overnight’: Babar Azam shuts Ramiz Raja’s statement with a strong remark

Pakan skipper Babar Azam has reacted strongly on Pakan Cricket Board’s (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja’s advice to “pick T20 players” for Tests.
Responding to a question on Raja’s advice, Babar said on Tuesday,” The door is not shut for anyone. There is a set plan for everything and we have it for every format. You can’t change things in a day or week. It takes time. For mindset to change, it takes time.
Then, if we start playing defensively, journals will ask why we don’t play aggressively and when we play aggressively, they ask why we don’t play the other way. There will always be questions, you can’t please everyone. Ultimately what matters is results. If results don’t come then questions will be raised no matter what we do.”
Raja, in an interview with former England skipper Michael Atherton, had hailed England’s new approach in Test cricket as said that he advised Babar to pick T20 players for Test cricket just like England.
“Like England for example, I suggested to Babar that England are playing the T20 format in a five-day version, so you better pick T20 players here. It’s a forced mindset on Pakan, which I absolutely like. I want the future generation to think of it as a T20 format, like England are playing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Babar was left to rue injuries to his key fast bowlers after England completed a sweep of their Test series on Tuesday.
Pakan’s skipper Babar Azam, left,, Mohammad Rizwan, center, and Sarfraz Ahmed, clap for teammate Azhar Ali, who played his last match due to retirement, as they walks off field on the end of third Test cricket match between Pakan and England, in Karachi, Pakan, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
“We were unfortunate that our main fast bowlers were not fit,” Babar said after England recorded an emphatic eight-wicket win in the third and final Test and handed Pakan its first 3-0 whitewash in a home Test series. “The new players did perform but couldn’t execute the way we wanted. When things were in our hands we had soft dismissals in those times and due to that we couldn’t win matches which we should have won.”
Pakan’s premier fast bowler Shaheen Afridi was ruled out for the series because of knee injury while Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah also sustained injuries during the first Test which ruled them out for the last two matches.
“Fitness has the main role because if you are not extra fit you cannot compete in all the three formats,” Babar said. “You get two to three days to switch from one format to the other and you have to be mentally ready as well.”
Pakan gave Test caps to seamer Mohammad Ali, who took four wickets in the first Test before he finished wicketless in the second Test and got dropped from the final match. Fast bowler Mohammad Wasim had a disappointing debut in the final Test and could take only one wicket and that was after Harry Brook had completed his third successive century of England’s memorable tour.
“When you don’t have the backbone of your bowling, then new bowlers found it difficult to adjust quickly,” Babar said. “The way England played, they did not let us settle down.”

England scored at a belligerent pace throughout the series that began with a world-record 506-4 on the opening day of the first Test and culminated with 170-2 at better than run-a-ball at Karachi on Tuesday.
Babar said Pakan’s strength was its batting, but in all the three Test matches the middle-order and the lower order crashed against England’s pace and spin.
Left-handed Saud Shakeel, who made his Test debut, couldn’t convert his four fifties into big hundreds and Babar also performed in patches.
Pakan twice came close in the first two Test matches before succumbing under Ben Stokes’ aggressive tactics and lost 74 runs and 26 runs at Rawalpindi and Multan, respectively.
Pakan has just five days to recover from its worst ever loss at home as New Zealand will be arriving for a two-Test series this week, followed three ODIs. The first Test begins at Karachi from next Monday, followed the second match in Multan from Jan. 3-7. Karachi will host the three ODIs between Jan. 10-14.– With AP inputs