The Pakistan cricket team has turned a new page after letting go of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan from their T20I plans. However, the new team under the leadership of Salman Agha seems to suffer from age-old problems that have bugged the national cricket team.
The age-old problem is none other than that of poor running between the wickets. The Pakistan team’s game awareness was once again questioned in their first T20I match against Bangladesh when Khushdil Shah ran out Fakhar Zaman in a needless incident in Dhaka on Sunday, July 20.
The incident happened in the 12th over of the T20I match with Pakistan already 5 down. Khushdil, who was at the crease with Fakhar Zaman, tapped a ball to deep point and stormed off for a run.
As the batters ran for the second against Taskin Ahmed’s throw, Khushdil backed out of the run midway and had Fakhar in all sorts of trouble. Fakhar, who was forced into an emergency sprint, tried to turn back but fell to the ground. Once he fell, there was no chance of him getting back, with wicketkeeper-captain Litton Das picking up the ball and dismantling the stumps at the striker’s end.
It must have been frustrating for Pakistan fans as they lost their 6th wicket at the score of 70 and then ended up getting bowled out for just 110 runs in 19.3 overs.
Funnily, just one day earlier, the Pakistan Legends also suffered a hilarious run-out against England Legends in the WCL 2025 tournament. In that match, former Pakistan head coach Mohammad Hafeez was responsible for the mix-up, which resulted in the dismissal of Umar Amin.
Meanwhile, Pakistan selectors ruled out any role for senior players — Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi — in the team’s T20I series against West Indies and Bangladesh.
PTI reported that the selectors and head coach, Mike Hesson, have already conveyed to Babar, Rizwan and Shaheen that they are not required for the T20 series and should focus more on the ICC World Test Championship and ODIs.
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