{"id":17052,"date":"2025-10-26T23:21:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T18:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/?p=17052"},"modified":"2025-10-26T23:21:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T18:21:41","slug":"babar-azam-to-bat-at-no-3-on-t20i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/2025\/10\/26\/babar-azam-to-bat-at-no-3-on-t20i\/","title":{"rendered":"Babar Azam to Bat at No.3 on T20I Return, confirms Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Babar Azam to Bat at No.3 on T20I Return, confirms Coach <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>RAWALPINDI:(Sports Reporter) Pakistan\u2019s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson has confirmed that star batter <a href=\"http:\/\/Babar Azam\">Babar Azam<\/a> will make his comeback to T20 internationals batting at the No. 3 position in the upcoming series against South Africa, marking his return to the shortest format after nine months.<\/p>\n<p>Babar last featured for Pakistan in T20Is against South Africa in Centurion in December 2024. While he has continued to play a key role in the ODI and Test squads, his absence from T20 cricket has been closely watched by fans and analysts alike.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the media in Rawalpindi on Sunday, Hesson said he was confident that Babar would make a strong return following his inclusion in the squad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI certainly endorse his selection, with Fakhar Zaman sent to first-class cricket,\u201d Hesson stated. \u201cThat created an opportunity for another top-order player, and it\u2019s a great chance to get Babar back into the squad. He\u2019s likely to bat at three \u2014 a role I\u2019m very confident he\u2019ll excel in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The coach also addressed the exclusion of wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Haris, noting that the youngster had struggled to perform consistently despite multiple opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaris is young and still needs improvement,\u201d he said, adding that Usman Khan was drafted into the side for his strength against spin bowling.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan have announced a 15-member squad for the T20I series against South Africa and the subsequent tri-nation event, along with a 16-member lineup for the ODIs against South Africa and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>Hesson emphasized that the upcoming matches would serve as crucial preparation for the T20 World Cup, allowing team management to test various combinations.<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on Pakistan\u2019s loss to India in the Asia Cup 2025 final, the coach described the result as <em>\u201cdisappointing\u201d<\/em> but expressed optimism about the team\u2019s progress. He also praised Usman Tariq as an emerging spin talent and confirmed that Sufiyan Moqim has been released to participate in domestic cricket.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Babar Azam to Bat at No.3 on T20I Return, confirms Coach RAWALPINDI:(Sports Reporter) Pakistan\u2019s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson has confirmed that star batter Babar Azam will make his comeback to T20 internationals batting at the No. 3 position in the upcoming series against South Africa, marking his return to the shortest format after nine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2297,2298,2305],"tags":[2722,3590],"class_list":["post-17052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-pakistan","category-sports","tag-babar-azam","tag-pakistan-cricket-board"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17052"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17054,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17052\/revisions\/17054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}