'Work On Fitness, Play Domestic Cricket': Virender Sehwag's Advise To Struggling Babar Azam

Not a lot has gone right for Babar Azam in the last couple of years. The ace Pakistan batter was the heartthrob of the country but a consistent lean run made a massive dent to his reputation. It came to stage where PCB took a bold move to drop him from the Pakistan squad for the final two Tests against England. Earlier, Babar was also subjected to heavy criticism after Pakistan failed to do well in the ODI and T20 World Cup under his leadership, which saw him relinquish captaincy twice.Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag reflected on Babar Azam's lean run and suggested him to grind hard in domestic cricket, work on fitness and come back to international cricket fitter and mentally stronger."Babar Azam should play domestic cricket now. He should work on his fitness, spend some time with family, then come back to international cricket as a physically fitter and mentally stronger player,” said Sehwag on Shoaib Akhtar’s YouTube channel.Sehwag said the recent events have impacted Babar Azam mentally and requested the ace batter to stay mentally strong. Sehwag was optimistic that Babar would bounce back quickly from the massive slump. "With expectations from Babar decreasing and his resignation from captaincy, it seems he has been more impacted mentally than in terms of technique. He needs to stay mentally strong. He's a talented player, and players like him tend to bounce back quickly," he added.Babar hasn't scored a fifty for Pakistan in the last 18 innings, with his last good knock coming against New Zealand on December 26, 2022 where he scored 161 in the first Test. Since 2023, the veteran scored just 366 runs at an average of 20.33. In the first test against, he registered cores of 30 and five which led to his ouster from the team.