In-form Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman’s return a must for Pakistan to fancy chances of winning Champions Trophy

With less than two months left for ICC Champions Trophy 2025, Babar Azam remains Pakistan’s best bet as number three batter. Mohammed Rizwan and co. have so far failed to find a suitable replacement for the former skipper in the top-order so far. Now, time has almost run out which means PAK are forced to stick with Babar for that position. This certainly means one thing for sure. Azam needs to get his act together and start firing right away.

Why Babar Azam is Pakistan’s best no.3 bet for CT 2025

Make no mistake, Babar Azam is one of Pakistan‘s best batters across all formats of the game. The former skipper has a rich experience in the 50-over format, having played 121 ODIs and has amassed 5832 runs, with 19 hundreds and 32 fifties to his name already. The only issue with the former skipper has been his poor form in the last couple of years. He smashed his last century against Nepal in 2023 before the ODI World Cup. At the marquee event, he failed to fire – both as batter and skipper.

In Pakistan’s first set of ODI matches after a gap of one year, Babar Azam failed to convert starts into good scores, both in the series against Australia and in the 1st PAK vs SA ODI. At number three, Babar Azam has 5291 runs to his name from 102 innings and averages 60.12. No other batter comes close to the former Pakistan skipper in terms of dominating the number three position. And hence, it is very much required for Babar Azam to pull up his socks and perform if Pakistan fancy any chances of winning Champions Trophy 2025.

Year	Mat	Runs	Avg	SR
2015	7	230	38.33	89.14
2016	11	656	59.63	95.21
2017	18	872	67.07	79.27
2018	18	509	36.35	81.18
2019	20	1092	60.66	92.30
2020	3	221	110.50	101.84
2021	6	405	67.50	108.00
2022	9	679	84.87	90.77
2023	25	1065	46.30	84.65
2024	4	103	51.50	78.03

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Fakhar Zaman: The missing piece in Pakistan’s ODI jigsaw

If there’s another star whom Pakistan can place a safe bet on to deliver consistently, then it is Fakhar Zaman. The opener has been sidelined by the PCB due to alleged “fitness issues”. The reality is that he is at loggerheads with the team management and was also recently served a show-cause notice for expressing his emotions on Babar Azam being dropped. He was ignored for selection in the series against Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

With 3492 runs from 82 ODIs, Fakhar Zaman is indeed one of the best openers produced by Pakistan. averaging 46.45, he has 11 centuries and 16 fifties to his name. He is surely a better opening option for Pakistan instead of Abdullah Shafique who has been inconsistent. Should Fakhar Zaman pair up with Saim Ayub to be Pakistan opener, then the duo would surely terrorize the rest of the teams and boost the batting line-up of Pakistan by a great extent. Hence, Pakistan shouldn’t play petty politics and instead rope in Fakhar Zaman immediately while keeping him as the first-choice opener for CT 2025.

Position	Span	Mat	Runs	Avg	SR	100s	50s
1st position	2017-2023	35	1258	37.00	84.25	4	6
2nd position	2017-2023	46	2234	54.48	99.55	7	10