Is a stupid and short sighted argument which can easily and logically be answered if you spend 2 minutes thinking about it. And yes I'm using Babar as clickbait, sue me. This entire discussion applies pretty decently to any #3 batter in ODIs.

Point 1: what collapse is there for him to step in and save? He opens in t20s, bats at 3 in ODIs, and bats at 4 but sometimes 3 in tests. If he's in early, that's not a collapse, that's 1 early wicket. Nobody would demand Fakhar to save a team from collapses because he literally cannot enter in the midst of a collapse. The same applies to a #3

Point 2: basic math. If there is a collapse of 3,4,5 wickets then the chances of him being the guy to remain and bat through are small anyways (1 in 3, 1 in 4, 1 in 5). Of course seeing as he's the main batter those odds should be higher but the point is the very nature of the situation gives him small odds to begin with.

Point 3: if your #3 batter is batting well, there probably isn't a collapse to begin with. I feel like this should be self explanatory, he's batting with the openers or the #4 majority of the time who are just less prone to collapse.

The above 3 points apply to any #3 batters in general. The next 2 are more Babar specific.

Point 4: the collapse often starts the moment he gets out. That is objectively not an indictment on him. Note that I'm NOT referring to games like yesterdays match where he was the 3rd guy out in a collapse. There are so many of these examples I can't even count but 1st ODI vs RSA 2021 is a prime example, as well as Pakistan vs NZ 1st ODI 2025.

Point 5: despite everything I outlined showing why this specific situation is exceedingly rare, he still has several innings where he's done this but there's always a complaint about his innings or how he goes about it. I'll give a couple examples here:

Pak v Zim 2020. I can already smell people making the zimbabar jokes but whatever. Look at the scorecard here. Absolutely 0 support for the first 20 overs. Babar makes 125 and is the 9th man out. We lose in the super over.

Pak vs WI 2026. The entire team collapsed around him in the 4th innings. Babar gets shit here rightfully for exposing the tail enders but at one point Pakistan are 64/7 with Babar on 36 and the 7 dismissed batters combined making 22 runs.

Pak vs SL 2017 101/6 in 27 overs, Babar is on 43* st that point and bats through till the final over, is eventually the 7th man out for over 100.

Pak vs RSA 2021 Pakistan is 206/1 with Babar on 34. 11 overs layer they've lost 5 for 51 and Babars made 29 of those runs. He hits 36 runs in the last 3 overs and gets out of the last ball.

Pak vs Aus 2026 wouldn't really call this navigating a collapse but on a completely shit pitch where chasing even 160 wasn't easy he stuck around for the most part and made 40

This is gonna be a long post but im gonna do my best to explain why am i so horribly displeased with this squad and management

Babar Azam (c) - Dummy captain, basket case batsman, should he be out of the team? no, but do i have any expectation from this man to show the grit, resilience shown by world class batters like temba, gill, root, smith. The answer is that i dont even expect him to be able to play a similar innings on the flattest track on planet earth, he has shown no upward trajectory from his test fall, in fact its his downwards trajectory that has plateaued giving fans the illusion of a "comeback", he wont get a test century any time soon, hes an average player on par with anyone else in the squad, 2 fifties is what i expect from him, hes useless as a captain, maybe hes fine on field from a tactics pov when fielding but he cant back his players, hes spineless, he has no self respect for taking the captaincy in the first place and when push comes to shove and pakistan has another shambolic tour they will dispose of him without as much as a second thought.

Abdullah fazal - replacing imam ul haq, im fine with it abdullah fazal is class he deserves the rope and hes fully fit he should ideally be playing both tests, hes a gritty player i wanna see a maiden ton from him this series but will the pcb back him when the going eventually gets tough for him? no, shafique is the motm in our only test away win in ages, had a bad england series (along with literally everyone else) and got disposed off, in todays test day and age you have to be a player of great innings who can get ur teams to big totals in conditions that are tough around the world basically, abdullah fazal will have 2 bad matches, he will then be disposed off

ali usman - back in here, hes a good intelligent operator, decent batter in the subcontinental conditions, never should have come to the point where he was released from the squad just because he wasnt able to compensate for an already horrendous batting line up, they have as the theme goes disposed of sajid khan and hes their latest spin toy, once again, 2 bad matches and hes gone

Arafat minhas - 17 first class matches, hes good on the eye test. he is raw in this format, he doesnt have the volume of matches, once again he will do ok in this series with bat and ball, he will not be up to it in wobble seaming conditions away from home for which u need to not only have variety of pitches in domestic, but u need to be on fc away tours in different countries, play county stints, which arafat hasnt done

Azan awais - same thing as abdullah fazal, how many bad matched till he is disposed off

abbas - forced the pcb basically to have to keep him in the team

Sameer - This management is absolutely shit, like genuinely have no clue how to handle talent, sameer minhas has 1 season of fc in him, let me repeat that one season, he was not even absolutely generational in this season, he was outdone by a massive margin by his captain tayyab arif also making his debut, the reason why sameer is in with the debut is under 19 and psl, which is absolutely horrid by the management, sameer is a massive talent but he is 19 years old, he is not test cricket level, he is another placeholder, will he be in the squad in march? depends on how he does in the game hes given, because that is the pcb, these guys have no plan or clue on how to build up a test team

The rest is ok, even taha and suleman are exceptionally talented, but then its the same question of when are they gonna be disposed off, mike hesson and aqib javed are a match made in hell and will continue to ruin our test cricket with inconsistent selections, supposed "eye test" picks, and not letting players properly develop in domestic cricket, the cycle will repeat, we will never reach anywhere close to being a world class test team under this management despite the player pool being there

Congratulations to Pakistan 🇵🇰 team and Shadab Khan.

When he was given LBW this was the clip played in my head …. Was I the only one ?

Apparently, he himself asked to be released from the squad to focus on domestic. Good and rarely found mindset in Pakistan cricket if true. Sahibzada Farhan has been selected as his replacement. Hopefully, Maaz sadaqat is selected in the XI as his replacement and Farhan only if fakhar is also rested.

Could the British Empire survive the reign of Dictator Shadab Khan? The British conquered nations, but prime Shadab might just be their greatest historical threat. History books would never recover from this one.