After all the preparations and travails went into hosting the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, Pakistan utterly failed. They had lop-sided encounters against New Zealand and India, where the two teams thrashed Pakistan and knocked the hosts out of the championship with a game in hand. This obviously led to a meltdown within the cricketing fraternity in Pakistan, with all bashing the players and the management. But now, it looks like the senior Pakistani pros are planning to miss their next series altogether in the feat of getting dropped!
Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi to get dropped?
According to reports in Cricket Pakistan, some massive names are planning to withdraw themselves from the next New Zealand series, that beckons from March 23. Pakistan will travel to the Oceania continent to play five T20 international and three ODIs. “Some players fear being dropped due to their poor performance in the Champions Trophy, and top board officials are reportedly unhappy with their performances. It is believed that certain players are planning to withdraw from the tour before being officially dropped,” read the reports.
There are discussions that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) may leave out huge stars, namely, Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf. All the aforementioned names surely have all the talent in the world but have lacked form to back their selection. In 5 ODIs this year, Babar has made 149 runs at an average of 29.80. As for the troika of pacers, they have endured average of above 40 this year. This is quite alarming for Pakistan cricket that had high hopes going into the Champions Trophy.
