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Babar Azam tops the list of batters with most runs in T20Is. In 145 T20I matches for Pakistan, he has amassed a complete of 4596 runs.
Michael Vaughan wants Babar Azam to quit T20Is. (Picture Credit: AFP)
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan feels Babar Azam continues to be a ‘world-class player’, but he wants the previous Pakistan skipper to retire from T20Is after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. Based on Vaughan, who has donned the hat of an authority and commentator after his retirement from competitive cricket, the perfect thing for Babar to increase his Test and ODI profession for Pakistan will likely be to quit playing T20Is.
Vaughan feels the T20 format of the sport has modified a lot in the previous couple of years, and Babar is not any longer the player that’s fitted to T20s.
“I just think he’s a lovely player. I mean, there are some players… When you take a look at the way in which that T20 has moved within the last 4 or five years, it’s turn out to be increasingly more like baseball. These players are massive. I take a look at someone like Finn Allen. He’s a monster. Massive human being just launches it. I’d think that the perfect thing for Babar to delay his Test profession and his 50-over profession can be to offer up T20 international cricket,” Vaughan said on Cricbuzz show.
“He can still play within the PSL. He can still be a player playing in his domestic league. But I feel for his prolonged Test match profession and 50-over profession, which I see him as higher than a T20 player (he should quit T20Is),” he added.
Based on Vaughan, Babar is one among his favourite players to observe.
“I mean, for those who said to me, ‘List five of the perfect players that I like to observe over the course of the last 20 years,’ Babar is in that list due to that. He plays the sport purely and hits the ball on the deck. That’s the sort of player that I like to observe. I mean, I like the players that may just launch it and crash it to all parts. Improbable. But I like Steve Smith, Joe Root, Babar Azam, and Virat Kohli. They’re the form of players I really like to observe across all of the formats.”
“But T20 cricket, for those who said to anyone, and possibly Babar himself would say, ‘T20 is third on my list by way of the way in which that I play’. And possibly the way in which that he enjoys T20 cricket might be lower than the opposite two formats. But he’s still a world-class player,” he added.
February 24, 2026, 21:17 IST
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