{"id":72253,"date":"2026-02-21T17:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=72253"},"modified":"2026-02-21T17:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:10:07","slug":"babar-unlikely-to-return-as-opener-says-mike-hesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=72253","title":{"rendered":"Babar unlikely to return as opener, says Mike Hesson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The head coach of the Pakistan cricket team Mike Hesson has indicated that Babar Azam will not be reinstated as an opener.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Super Eight match against New Zealand in the ICC Men&#8217;s T20 World Cup 2026, Hesson said Babar is well aware that his strike rate in the powerplay phases of T20 World Cups has remained below 100, which does not align with the team\u2019s current strategy.<\/p>\n<p>The head coach said Babar could prove useful in the middle order, particularly when the team is under pressure and needs stability to rebuild an innings.<\/p>\n<p>He added that following the Asia Cup, Babar was assigned a specific role upon his return to the side and has since been batting mostly at number four.<\/p>\n<p>Hesson further stated that in the match against the United States, Babar increased his strike rate after settling in, describing this as the kind of role expected from him.<\/p>\n<p>According to the head coach, the team includes players who can perform the finisher\u2019s role more effectively, and therefore Babar will need to adapt further to his game and responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p>Statistics show that in his fifth T20 World Cup appearance, Babar has scored 187 runs off 217 balls during powerplay overs, resulting in a strike rate of 86.17. At his current number four position, his strike rate is around 120, which is considered less impactful in the context of fast-paced T20 cricket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The head coach of the Pakistan cricket team Mike Hesson has indicated that Babar Azam will not be reinstated as an opener. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Super Eight match against New Zealand in the ICC Men&#8217;s T20 World Cup 2026, Hesson said Babar is well aware that his strike rate in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":72254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,136],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[213],"class_list":{"0":"post-72253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest","8":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Babar unlikely to return as opener, says Mike Hesson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=72253\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Babar unlikely to return as opener, says Mike Hesson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The head coach of the Pakistan cricket team Mike Hesson has indicated that Babar Azam will not be reinstated as an opener. 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