Should Babar Azam make Pakistan’s ICC T20 World Cup (2026) squad?

[BouncerGuy]

The debate over Babar Azam's place in Pakistan's T20 World Cup squad has been settled by the selectors, at least for now: he is in the provisional squad. His inclusion appears to be a direct result of his performance in the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL), where scoring two half-centuries for the Sydney Thunder reportedly convinced the selection panel of his current form and value. This decision comes amid significant team restructuring, marked by the notable exclusion of former captain Mohammad Rizwan. Head coach Mike Hesson will soon trim the preliminary 20-player list down to the final 15 for the tournament, which Pakistan will play entirely in Sri Lanka.

However, his selection is not without scrutiny when examining his recent T20 numbers. While his class is unquestionable, a look at his yearly statistics reveals a concerning dip in 2025. The table below highlights this trend:

Year T20 Runs Batting Average Strike Rate
2024 1,558 42.10 132.9
2025 587 30.89 121.0
Career (T20I) 4,429 39.54 128.5

This data shows a decline in both his consistency (average) and his scoring tempo (strike rate) in the year leading up to the World Cup. The selectors are likely betting that his proven pedigree and the return to form shown in the BBL will override these figures. His role will be crucial in providing stability at the top of the order, especially as the team integrates new faces like potential wicketkeeper Usman Khan and manages the fitness of spearhead Shaheen Afridi.

 

[YousafTheBeast]

He’ll be picked.

It’ll be another tournament where Babar fans will end up in tears.

They never learn.

 

[Rana]

He’ll be picked.

It’ll be another tournament where Babar fans will end up in tears.

They never learn.

According to @heddie19 Babar will be playing the 2032 T20 World Cup as well.

 

[Rana]

Let’s ask @KingOfPakBreakfast who gets really emotional when the mention of Babar is brought up by me.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

No. He is finished in this format and there is no statistical data that justifies his place in the team anymore. Before it was just the strike-rate issue; now he can't score runs either. What purpose does it serve Pakistan selecting someone who can neither score runs, nor maintain a decent strike-rate?

 

[nish_mate]

Yes please, will ensure the cornered tiger avatar of PCT continues to be in deep freeze.

 

[KingOfPakBreakfast]

Let’s ask @KingOfPakBreakfast who gets really emotional when the mention of Babar is brought up by me.

He shouldn’t be picked, weirdo. Thought I’d made this clear multiple times.

 

[KingOfPakBreakfast]

No. He is finished in this format and there is no statistical data that justifies his place in the team anymore. Before it was just the strike-rate issue; now he can't score runs either. What purpose does it serve Pakistan selecting someone who can neither score runs, nor maintain a decent strike-rate?

It’s especially true in the position he currently bats. He’s in the middle of a career threatening slump, and a World Cup is no place to rediscover your mojo. Ironically Babar’s best self in itself wouldn’t be enough to fulfill the requirements of a no. 3 in modern t20 cricket. It would be irresponsible to pick him at this time. Hopefully one of the other lads fully embeds their case at no.3

The more relevant conversation is re: Hassan Nawaz

 

[jamie smith fan]

No he shouldn't play. nafay or haasan nawaz at 3 maybe.
But neither should fakhar play in the WC he is more awful than even bobzy the brand

 

[hassan918]

There is no harm in keeping him in the squad but he shouldn't be in the initial playing XI. Maybe to cover an injured player or in a particular situation/conditions.

 

[zahid01]

He should not be in the squad for the world up squad along with few others but reality is all these ttfs will be selected when we were humiliated in the last world cup there was an opportunity for us to develop a team with new blood but we continued with musical chairs I can see another humiliation coming this world cup.

 

[Devadwal]

When 112 strike rate player can become captian then surely 128 strike rate player deserves a place in the team.

 

[CricVet]

There is no harm in keeping him in the squad but he shouldn't be in the initial playing XI. Maybe to cover an injured player or in a particular situation/conditions.

No HARM...Let's call back AMIR as well after his 100th retirement...I mean what's the harm - just demoralize the candidates who are HOPING to be part of 15...that is all

You do know that his troubles get even worse when facing spinners, right? IN SL, you want ham as a back-up?

 

[RizwanT20Champ]

Babar has to make the squad no question about it. We need an experienced hand who can guide us in a 160 chase against Bhumrah or Cummins. All these tullas smashing UAE or Oman or Lanka second 11 will fail against them. Even Indian fans such as @Bhaag Viru Bhaag and @Nikhil_cric know the importance of Babar. Pity our own fans do not.

 

[jamie smith fan]

Babar has to make the squad no question about it. We need an experienced hand who can guide us in a 160 chase against Bhumrah or Cummins. All these tullas smashing UAE or Oman or Lanka second 11 will fail against them. Even Indian fans such as @Bhaag Viru Bhaag and @Nikhil_cric know the importance of Babar. Pity our own fans do not.

Yeah babar presence increases indias chances of winning so Indians want him in the squad

 

[salman24]

Babar should be in the squad

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Babar has to make the squad no question about it. We need an experienced hand who can guide us in a 160 chase against Bhumrah or Cummins. All these tullas smashing UAE or Oman or Lanka second 11 will fail against them. Even Indian fans such as @Bhaag Viru Bhaag and @Nikhil_cric know the importance of Babar. Pity our own fans do not.

Babar's game has regressed considerably and it's time even his fans admitted this. Most quality fast-bowlers in the world manage to find the edge of his bat, or his front pad fairly early these days. On top of that he bats like a gutless coward. So even if the pitch is flat he will spend time trying to get his eye in. It's truly saddening to see how far a player we had such high hopes for has fallen.

 

[nish_mate]

Babar has to make the squad no question about it. We need an experienced hand who can guide us in a 160 chase against Bhumrah or Cummins. All these tullas smashing UAE or Oman or Lanka second 11 will fail against them. Even Indian fans such as @Bhaag Viru Bhaag and @Nikhil_cric know the importance of Babar. Pity our own fans do not.

He doesn't last till Bumrah, Hardik gets him first ..evil Hardik

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Babar has to make the squad no question about it. We need an experienced hand who can guide us in a 160 chase against Bhumrah or Cummins. All these tullas smashing UAE or Oman or Lanka second 11 will fail against them. Even Indian fans such as @Bhaag Viru Bhaag and @Nikhil_cric know the importance of Babar. Pity our own fans do not.

Phull sappot. Need a stable lineup of Babar, Agha, Rizwan, Haseebullah and bring Saud Shakeel in as well.

 

[Rana]

Babar should be in the squad

Yeah in a bridesmaid squad

 

[sl-fan-of-pak]

Drop him,

Let Saim and Farhan open.
Khwaja or Maaz (whoever is the better one)
Keep Rizwan as 2 down.
Salman Agha 3 down.
Fakhar
Shadab / Faheem
Nawaz
Abrar/Muqeem
Shaheen
Mirza/Abbas Afridi

Squad Hassan Nawaz, Usman

 

[Devadwal]

Yeah babar presence increases indias chances of winning so Indians want him in the squad

Not true , Babar play a important roles for pakistan when they win a single World cups game in the entire history.

 

[Kianig89]

Yes he should be in.

 

[heddie19]

According to @heddie19 Babar will be playing the 2032 T20 World Cup as well.

Of course, you can start your preprations for crying already.

 

[heddie19]

Babar is deservedly playing the world Cup without any doubt.

 

[mon858]

No need. If he slots into current lineup it can only be if agha is injured. Else they will need to drop Fakhar Zaman, who on his day can win a game even if nothing doing other games. Babar at his peak will play sedate innings and we have accumulator already.

 

[topspin]

@BouncerGuy

You are so desperate. This shouldn’t even be up for debate.

 

[BouncerGuy]

@BouncerGuy

You are so desperate. This shouldn’t even be up for debate.

So There should be no debate that Babar should definitely be in..

Thanks bro.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

He is in the middle of a big slump. It is sad to see..sure he wasn't an amazing T20 player before but he was solid and consistent with the occasional big knock. His century against England was a very good knock. You can say B C team or whatever but it was against a set of bowlers who get into any t20 franchise league in the world.

At the time, it looked like he could do more but was deliberately restraining himself. Now he just can't bat and looks scratchy.

 

[sweep_shot]

He is in the middle of a big slump. It is sad to see..sure he wasn't an amazing T20 player before but he was solid and consistent with the occasional big knock. His century against England was a very good knock. You can say B C team or whatever but it was against a set of bowlers who get into any t20 franchise league in the world.

At the time, it looked like he could do more but was deliberately restraining himself. Now he just can't bat and looks scratchy.

Captaincy worsened his form.

 

[RidiculousMan]

He is in the middle of a big slump. It is sad to see..sure he wasn't an amazing T20 player before but he was solid and consistent with the occasional big knock. His century against England was a very good knock. You can say B C team or whatever but it was against a set of bowlers who get into any t20 franchise league in the world.

At the time, it looked like he could do more but was deliberately restraining himself. Now he just can't bat and looks scratchy.

The Babar that played the innings against India in 2021 WT20 is not the same Babar now.

 

[TheSultan]

He is in the middle of a big slump. It is sad to see..sure he wasn't an amazing T20 player before but he was solid and consistent with the occasional big knock. His century against England was a very good knock. You can say B C team or whatever but it was against a set of bowlers who get into any t20 franchise league in the world.

At the time, it looked like he could do more but was deliberately restraining himself. Now he just can't bat and looks scratchy.

This is what is actually shocking. The transition

2021 good player, but come on push yourself

2022 ok you’re playing some good innings on paper, but this is stat padding

2023 - ok, you’re a sneaky stat padder

2024 - you seem to be out of form

2025/26 - you can’t bat

 

[RizwanT20Champ]

Phull sappot. Need a stable lineup of Babar, Agha, Rizwan, Haseebullah and bring Saud Shakeel in as well.

Not sure if this is sarcastic but Tulla Agha, Haseebullah should be nowhere near the side. Saud Shakeel could work if given chances. He won't be better than losers like Mo Harris, Azam Khan in any case.

 

[RizwanT20Champ]

This is what is actually shocking. The transition

2021 good player, but come on push yourself

2022 ok you’re playing some good innings on paper, but this is stat padding

2023 - ok, you’re a sneaky stat padder

2024 - you seem to be out of form

2025/26 - you can’t bat

Can't bat but still won us the series vs SL recently performing in the decider. When a depleted SL is smashed by Farhan we do bhangra for his 130 SR.

 

[RizwanT20Champ]

Babar's game has regressed considerably and it's time even his fans admitted this. Most quality fast-bowlers in the world manage to find the edge of his bat, or his front pad fairly early these days. On top of that he bats like a gutless coward. So even if the pitch is flat he will spend time trying to get his eye in. It's truly saddening to see how far a player we had such high hopes for has fallen.

He just won us a series vs SL on his comeback. Besides, Babar's game even regressed is better than even Farhan at his peak. Farhan in his so called golden form struck at 115 or something in the Asia Cup and we were doing bhangra because of 2 chikkay. Babar strikes match winning 50s in Aus at 125 and suddenly all hell breaks loose over his SR...that is the standard King has set for himself. There will be a concentrated social media campaign in the coming days leading to the WC highlighting everything Babar has done. I urge each and every Pak fan here to be a part of this.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

He just won us a series vs SL on his comeback. Besides, Babar's game even regressed is better than even Farhan at his peak. Farhan in his so called golden form struck at 115 or something in the Asia Cup and we were doing bhangra because of 2 chikkay. Babar strikes match winning 50s in Aus at 125 and suddenly all hell breaks loose over his SR...that is the standard King has set for himself. There will be a concentrated social media campaign in the coming days leading to the WC highlighting everything Babar has done. I urge each and every Pak fan here to be a part of this.

No need to misrepresent facts. Farhan has two half centuries against India in three matches. Babar has one in five and even that one came four years ago when he was a completely different batsman. So it's a little more than "2 chikkay."

Since last year, Farhan has averaged 31.6 at a SR of 134 with 8 half-centuries. In the last year, Babar has averaged 34.3 at a SR of 114 with two half centuries. His highest score of 74 came against Zimbabwe.

Farhan may not be the second coming of Chris Gayle but looking at the state of this side, he is probably the best batsman in the team right now based on form. Babar on the other hand is playing purely on reputation, and because of the failure of others, because everyone knows that he hasn't played a decent or impactful knock in this format in years. Before he used to bat at a SR of 128-130, now he struggles to even crack 120. One wonders what his numbers last year would even look like if it wasn't for that 74 against his favorite team Zimbabwe.

These are all facts that everyone can see, unless ofcourse they are so caught up in their fandom for Babar that they care more about Babar, rather than what's best for the team.

 

[RizwanT20Champ]

No need to misrepresent facts. Farhan has two half centuries against India in three matches. Babar has one in five and even that one came four years ago when he was a completely different batsman. So it's a little more than "2 chikkay."

Since last year, Farhan has averaged 31.6 at a SR of 134 with 8 half-centuries. In the last year, Babar has averaged 34.3 at a SR of 114 with two half centuries. His highest score of 74 came against Zimbabwe.

Farhan may not be the second coming of Chris Gayle but looking at the state of this side, he is probably the best batsman in the team right now based on form. Babar on the other hand is playing purely on reputation, and because of the failure of others, because everyone knows that he hasn't played a decent or impactful knock in this format in years. Before he used to bat at a SR of 128-130, now he struggles to even crack 120. One wonders what his numbers last year would even look like if it wasn't for that 74 against his favorite team Zimbabwe.

These are all facts that everyone can see, unless ofcourse they are so caught up in their fandom for Babar that they care more about Babar, rather than what's best for the team.

Facts?

Farhan played 3 games vs India in Asia Cup

155 runs @ SR 122.04

So maybe you should stop misrepresenting facts. He tuk tuked vs India and got away with it because of 2 chikkay.
Funny you mention Babar's SR of 114. Do you know what Farhan struck at in the Asia Cup where he supposedly GOATed? No?



So please don't talk to me about facts. Farhan's career SR where he strikes at 140+ by opposition:

Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Sri Lanka

End of list....


Want more?

Opposition where he strikes at 130+

Zimbabwe




Don't accuse me wrongly of spreading propaganda next time when you are selective in your facts.

@TheSultan @YousafTheBeast @gazza619 @Raja Ishtiaq @BouncerGuy @salman24

 

[Rana]

This is what is actually shocking. The transition

2021 good player, but come on push yourself

2022 ok you’re playing some good innings on paper, but this is stat padding

2023 - ok, you’re a sneaky stat padder

2024 - you seem to be out of form

2025/26 - you can’t bat

2022 onwards, no Hafeez or Malik to do the middle order clean up.

Pakistan continued to slide downhill. Babar and Rizwan didn’t step up. This is why the statpadding was torturous and detrimental to Pakistan’s cause.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Facts?

Farhan played 3 games vs India in Asia Cup

155 runs @ SR 122.04

So maybe you should stop misrepresenting facts. He tuk tuked vs India and got away with it because of 2 chikkay.
Funny you mention Babar's SR of 114. Do you know what Farhan struck at in the Asia Cup where he supposedly GOATed? No?

View attachment 160603

So please don't talk to me about facts. Farhan's career SR where he strikes at 140+ by opposition:

Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Sri Lanka

End of list....


Want more?

Opposition where he strikes at 130+

Zimbabwe


View attachment 160604

Don't accuse me wrongly of spreading propaganda next time when you are selective in your facts.

@TheSultan @YousafTheBeast @gazza619 @Raja Ishtiaq @BouncerGuy @salman24

I guess irony must be dead because the very thing that you are doing right now is being selective with facts by cherry picking Farhan's numbers.

I made a very specific comparison - Babar's performance since 2025 vs. Farhan's performance since 2025, since we are judging them both on their recent form because that's what actually matters if you are selecting someone for a tournament in one month.

And the funny thing is that even in this cherry-picked statistical breakdown, Farhan has a higher strike-rate than Babar's strike-rate last year (114).

Also, Farhan has played zero matches against Australia and New Zealand since returning to the side in 2025, so it's intellectually dishonest to include those numbers against those teams, whom he last played two years ago... long before he regained form in domestic cricket and PSL. The only top team that Farhan has played in the past year is India, against whom he has scored 50 more runs than Babar in two less innings, at only a slightly worse strike-rate. And we are talking about peak Babar here... not the broken down, Temu version of a T20 batsman we see now. Even at his best Babar never played a 150+ SR innings against India like Farhan did in the final.

And again, the point is not to say that Farhan is some great world-beater player, but to show how rubbish Babar has been. Farhan may have alot of flaws but atleast he possesses the ability to play high SR innings which Babar can only dream of at this point in his career. This propaganda may work for the Babar Army fan accounts you're trying to encourage, but no rational cricket fan who actually wants what's best for this team isn't buying any of it.

 

[TeymurBlake]

Absolutely not. Babar is no longer a T20I cricketer for Pakistan, same with Rizwan. They should not be selected anymore.

Keep both in Test & Babar in ODIs.