Captain Shan Masood stands by Babar Azam, encouraging him to find his rhythm and return to peak performance

"I cannot say that Babar will not have a future. Anyone with such talent has the potential to be one of the best in Test cricket.”

Shan is confident that Babar Azam will come out as a stronger batsman this time.

• He will be one of the predominant batsmen of Pakistan: Shan.

• The captain says that at times, it is okay for him to be pulled out.

Shan Masood, the red-ball captain, supports the batter in saying that Babar Azam should take some time off so that he is able to get back to his top form after he was dropped from the Pakistan test squad. The captain believes that Babar Azam has a bright future ahead and is one of the best batsmen for the team.

The reason for this was Babar’s performance. In the first Test, Babar managed to score only 35 runs in two innings and suffered a defeat against Pakistan. Babar Azam has been out of form for some time now and last month lost the captaincy yet again. Subsequently, during the duration of the T20 World Cup, in March he made a comeback as white-ball captain, but the team could not make it past the Super Eight. The previous year was unfortunate for Babar, as he lost all three formats of captaincy due to Pakistan’s inability to make the knockout stage in the 50-over World Cup.

While Babar's time in the Pakistan team is limited, he will be making his return to the national side as he was picked in the ODI and T20I squads in this month’s tour of Australia.

I think he’s one of the best batsmen in the world, so I am nobody to say that he doesn’t have a future, Shan stated when queried on Babar’s future during the BBC's 'Stumped' podcast on Saturday. He has the potential to win multiple match series and become one of the best batsmen in test cricket.

He’s always in the rank somewhere. I guess sometimes people need to step back and take a break. I personally think this break will be of great help to him, and he will turn out to be a much more competitive player.

He has played so much cricket and has seen so much that he will forever be one of the best batsmen to don the Pakistani jersey. It’s okay at times to be pulled out and to take a break, as he has been through a lot.

Pakistan’s next fixture will be a test match, which will be a part of two test matches against South Africa in the month of December.