Want to see Babar at his best; he is a key player: Saud Shakeel ahead of England Tests

 Multan:  Pakistan Test vice-captain Saud Shakeel wants to focus on his team’s performance in the upcoming series against England rather than fret on premier batter Babar Azam’s decision to step down from white ball captaincy.

 On Tuesday, the 29-year-old Babar announced that he was stepping down from the leadership role due to workload and instead wanted to solely focus on his batting.

 Meanwhile, Shakeel explained that the decisions taken by Babar and national selector Mohammad Yousuf were their personal choices and didn’t concern the other players in the team.

 “Our focus right now is on red-ball cricket and this series, which is very important for us. We are playing at home, and we have another chance to end our recent streak of bad results,” Saud said in a media session here on Saturday.

 “We want to see Babar at his best; he is a key player for us. We might have discussed these happenings among ourselves as a group. But more importantly, we have been discussing how to win this Test series.”

 Shakeel also stated that the players had discussed improving the team morale and cohesion, besides being aware that despite poor results, they had the complete backing of their captain and coach.

 He insisted there was no grouping within the team, and the environment was quite good. “The important thing is that now is the right time to deliver,” Shakeel noted.

 Shakeel expressed that they were expecting England to continue playing with their ‘Bazball’ approach, besides disclosing that head coach Jason Gillispie and captain Shan Masood had told the players to convert good starts into big scores.

 “We know we are struggling at the moment to give our best, and the batsmen not getting big scores is a concern, but it does not mean we will also play like England does. We will play according to our requirements.”

 “England’s style of cricket gives you many opportunities to stay in the match, so we need to take advantage of that to finish the match and win the series.”

 “I think this time they don’t have a particularly experienced bowling unit, and they will play through a certain plan. We will try to keep things simple and capitalise on any opportunities that come our way,” he concluded.