Asia Cup: 'Stop calling them key players' - Mohammad Hafeez slams Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan after Pakistan squad snub

Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan (Getty Images)

Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel.

For years, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have been seen as the backbone of Pakistan’s batting unit. But with both senior batters left out of the squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2025, questions over their place in the T20 setup have resurfaced. Former Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has now added fuel to the debate, bluntly declaring that the duo no longer qualify as “key players” for the national side.Speaking on his YouTube channel, Hafeez argued that the “key player” tag belongs only to those consistently winning matches for Pakistan — a category he believes neither Babar nor Rizwan currently fit into. “Calling them key players would be wrong and unfair. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are not Pakistan cricket’s key players at the moment. Key players are those who win matches for Pakistan,” he said.Instead, Hafeez pointed to a new generation of performers carrying the team’s fight in recent times. “If we look at the past year and a half to two years, the players showing consistent performance are Salman Ali Agha, Saeem Ayub and Hasan Nawaz. Why aren’t we talking about them? They are the current players winning matches for Pakistan” he added.Hafeez stressed that the senior batters must re-earn their reputations. “I think Babar and Rizwan need to be concerned about their positions in the team. They need to prove themselves as good players first; key players come later. Both were good in the past, but now they are not delivering results,” he remarked.Even Pakistan’s bowling spearheads did not escape Hafeez’s assessment. “The same goes for Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi, they are also not giving match-winning performances for Pakistan,” he said, before urging the board to adopt a long-term vision.“We should focus on players who can contribute for the next 10–15 years. Our media criticises one or two players and hypes one or two others, which is wrong. We need to talk about those who are actually performing,” Hafeez concluded.

Click here to read article