'So someone like Babar..' - Former South Africa skipper lends out his views on Babar Azam's selection in T20 World Cup 2026

The former captain of South Africa, Faf du Plessis has given his thoughts on Babar Azam's place in modern T20 cricket as well as the debate that surrounds him being in the line-up for Pakistan. The legendary Proteas batter was asked about how Babar fits in today’s aggressive format when talking about the changing demands of how we view the game now compared to how we viewed it years ago. Faf also mentioned that team management has begun to alter the way they have used him during certain match situations (due to concerns over his strike rate during the powerplay) recently; this has generated some discussion amongst fans and analysts over the last several months and matches throughout the world.

In response to this tactical change, du Plessis indicated that since the beginning of T20 cricket as a format until today, T20 has changed absolutely rapidly over the years, with the areas of power-hitting expectation and run-scoring speed being two significant areas of change, du Plessis suggested that teams are now putting more emphasis on having aggressive batters that are able to start attacking straight away, thereby requiring that traditional anchor batters adapt their style of play. Furthermore, he feels that adaptability is going to be a major key for batters to be relevant to the modern day T20 game and that evolvement with trends will also be a major component to batter's ability to continue to have their position in the line-up to be based on more strategic thinking and less so on reputation through success as perceived by how the future of the game will continue to evolve.

"Look, I think first of all, all great players evolve their careers at different points in their career. So someone like Babar, we know him as one of the world's best players for a very, very long time. I think the game of T20 cricket has moved so fast forward and towards strike rates that he's found himself a little bit behind in terms of strike rates. So I think if you're someone like Mike Hesson, what he's trying to do is he's trying to find the best way to introduce him into the game," the former South Africa skipper said on ESPNcricinfo.

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Faf du Plessis further elucidated how on spinning surfaces, in middle overs, Babar Azam has the ability to decrease the amount of dot balls and to facilitate the continuous scoring through his batting performances. This function on slow surfaces has a greater significance than on flat surfaces, as the recent development of the game has eliminated their importance in current-day estate.

The former RCB bowler also stated that a batter with a strike rate of 120 to 130 would still have a place in the team if he were to be batting on difficult pitches and this could be used by the team management to fully utilise Babar's strengths. He noted that the recent transition of the game from one era to another means that the team now expects batters to score at a strike rate of 160 to 200 plus in the first six overs (powerplay) to be able to take advantage of the powerplay. Pakistan's Super 8 match against New Zealand at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, on February 21 was washed out due to the rain. They will now take on England on February 24 in Pallekele.

"And on spinning pitches in the middle, that's where someone like him is worth his gold. He can minimize the dot balls, he can strike rates. So he's found a role for him and especially on slow pitches. When you come to flat wickets, those kind of roles these days are not as important anymore. But on tricky surfaces, there is a role for someone to play in the 120-130 strike rate. So I can imagine he almost looked at how can I maximize the best out of Babar Azam. And looking at him in the last couple of years and certainly in the power play, the game has moved too fast, too forward to be at 120 strike rate. Now you need to be 160-190-200 plus for you to maximize that first six overs," Faf concluded.