Mike Hesson reveals how Babar Azam can make his T20I comeback for T20 World Cup 2026

Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson has revealed how Babar Azam can make his way back to the Pakistan T20I set-up for the forthcoming T20 World Cup, scheduled to take place next year. Notably, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have been excluded from the Asia Cup 2025 squad.

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Hesson feels Babar has an opportunity to play in the forthcoming Big Bash League in Australia and prove his worth, especially in terms of improving his strike rate, to stand a chance of making it to the T20 World Cup squad next year.

"There's no doubt Babar's been asked to improve in some areas around taking on spin and in terms of his strike rate. Those are things he's working really hard on," Hesson said.

"But at the moment the players we have, have done exceptionally well. Sahibzada Farhan has played six games (against Bangladesh and West Indies) and won three Player of the Match awards,” he added.

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"A player like Babar has an opportunity to play in the BBL and show he's improving in those areas in T20s. He's too good a player not to consider,” he observed.

The 17-man squad announced by the PCB selection committee will be led by Salman Ali Agha. Furthermore, Hesson also talked about the surfaces Pakistan recently played on. Notably, Pakistan suffered a 1-2 series defeat to Bangladesh away from home while they bounced back with a 2-1 series win over West Indies away from home.

"We were challenged with three different surfaces (in recent matches against Bangladesh and West Indies)," Hesson said.

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"In Lahore, the surfaces were flat and the batting excelled. We went to Bangladesh, where they were incredibly challenging and low-scoring games. Our top-order sets the game up. All the games we won the top order performed really well,” he stated.

Pakistan T20I squad for tri-series and Asia Cup: Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Waseem Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufyan Moqim.

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