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Babar, Rizwan's Snub Brain Fade Or Masterclass? Analysing Pakistan's Shocking Asia Cup Move

Probuddha Bhattacharjee

Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan [Source: AFP Media]Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan [Source: AFP Media]

Pakistan have announced their squad for the Asia Cup 2025. Two of their major stars, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, have been axed from the team. In recent times, they have been the biggest assets of the team's batting, but still, the management decided to exclude these two players from the major tournament.

While this might look like madness from the outside, a deeper inspection will reveal that it was a mathematical necessity given the fact that Pakistan's conservative approach in the T20Is has hit a tactical dead end.

The Failure Pattern Speaks Volumes

The stats tell a very disheartening story for the Pakistan team and their fans. They suffered their earliest-ever T20 World Cup exit in 2024, after a humiliating defeat in the final of the 2022 edition.

Since 2020, Pakistan's top three have consumed three-fourths of all faced by the team—the highest among the full members. During this period, Babar and Rizwan maintained a powerplay strike rate of just 116 and 117.40, respectively.

In modern T20 cricket, when even strike rates of over 130 are considered average, the sub-120 strike rates of these two players present a compelling case supporting the logic of the management's decision.

The New Generation's Promise

The numbers suggest that Pakistan's gamble on the next generation is probably one of their best decisions. Hasan Nawaz struck a 44-ball century in a T20I, the fastest by a Pakistani. Besides, his PSL 2025 campaign was extraordinary, where he scored at an average of 57 with a strike rate of 162.

Hasan Nawaz for Pakistan [Source: AFP Media]Hasan Nawaz for Pakistan [Source: AFP Media]

Mohammad Haris also scored a 45-ball century against Bangladesh and maintained a strike rate of 201 throughout the series.

Shahibzada Farhan has hit the most sixes in T20s this year among Pakistani batters, with scores of 112*, 162* and 148 in a single National T20 Cup season. 

Why This Approach From Pakistan Works

This new strategy by Pakistan addresses a fundamental strategic bottleneck. Their middle-order collapsed whenever Babar-Rizwan departed early, creating a vicious cycle of conservative batting.

Against England in 2022, the middle-order dependencies like Khusdil Shah and Mohammad Nawaz consistently failed to deliver match-winning impacts.

The Asia Cup 2025 presents the perfect opportunity for Pakistan to experiment with their squad, with the 2026 T20 World Cup in mind. This approach by Pakistan isn't a desperate step; it was something overdue and is backed by compelling data.