3 min readUpdated: Mar 14, 2026 08:46 PM IST
Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali has flatly rejected the official explanation for Babar Azam’s absence from the national squad, saying the star batter is dealing with a mental problem — not a physical injury.
Basit told his YouTube channel BasitAliShow that Babar’s batting and fielding showed no signs of a physical ailment, attributing the slump to poor man-management and the decision to bat him at number four. He said Babar has a fragile confidence and that whoever is currently in his ear has too much sway over his state of mind.
“Babar Azam is mentally unfit,” Basit said. “Physically unfit he is not.” (Babar Azam mentally unfit hai. Physically unfit nahin hai.)
He added that it was for the best Babar had not been selected — he would not have performed in his current state of mind anyway.
Basit was equally blunt about white-ball head coach Mike Hesson, the former New Zealand coach appointed by the PCB in May 2025, accusing him of overstepping his role by effectively picking the 15-man squad himself — a job that belongs to the selectors.
“Who is he to make a team of 15? Is it his uncle’s team?” (Woh hota kaun hai? Uske chacha ki team hai kya?) Basit said, asking rhetorically whether it was New Zealand’s team being picked.
He also turned on Aaqib Javed — now Director of High Performance — saying Aaqib bore direct responsibility for the situation by handing Hesson that authority in the first place.
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“Aaqib Javed also has a hand in destroying Pakistan cricket — because he is the one who gave him that authority.” (Aaqib Javed ka bhi haath hai Pakistan ki cricket ko tabah karne mein — kyunke usne usko yeh ikhtiyar diya hua tha.) He challenged Aaqib directly, asking on what basis a head coach had ever been allowed to pick squads — a job that belongs to the selectors alone.
Using his signature phrase, Basit predicted Hesson’s tenure was on borrowed time, saying the coach would be bidding “tata bye-bye” to his job if Pakistan lost their next match.
Pakistan won their previous match by 128 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method, which Basit called an encouraging sign. He described the next fixture as the decisive one.
On the wider picture, Basit issued a bleak verdict on Pakistan’s 2027 World Cup prospects, predicting a sweeping cull of senior players and saying only fast bowler Ma Sadaqat had any realistic chance of surviving into that cycle — and only if he kept his own behaviour in check.
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He said the “big crocodiles” (bade magar machchh) inside the current dressing room would not allow younger talent to come through.
On other matters, Basit acknowledged that the Salman Mirza run-out was technically correct but said it was poor spirit, comparing it to a similar controversy involving Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan and Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews who was once ‘timed out’.
