Babar Azam Pulls Out of Big Bash League for This Reason

The Big Bash League is now coming to an end, but before that another thing has ended. And it is the journey of Babar Azam with Sydney Sixers in the current season. The team released a statement on his departure from the tournament, as Sydney prepares for the clash to reach the finals.

Sydney Sixers will now be going against the defending champions Hobart Hurricanes. This match will take place tomorrow to decide which team faces Perth Scorchers in the final match. But just before that, Sydney Sixers have gone through an important change in their line-up, creating tension for the ultimate clash.

Babar Azam, the opening batsman for the team, has now been ruled out of the tournament. Right before the important match against Hobart Hurricanes, it remains to be seen who comes in place of Babar Azam. Big Bash League also put down a notice for the same, informing fans about his availability.

1. BBL Releases Statement

Big Bash League is now just two games away from coming to an end. With Sydney Sixers just one match away from the finals, the team has made a drastic change. They will have to go without Babar Azam in the match against Hobart Hurricanes to get their spot in the finals.

For this, a statement was also posted on their official handles. It said, “Babar Azam will return to Pakistan to commence preparations for upcoming international matches.” While he is not a part of the three match T20I series against Australia, he is a part of the team for the T20 World Cup. Due to this reason, he would now join his national teammates for the big tournament.

Sydney Sixers also released a statement for the same, which said, “The Sydney Sixers have today been informed that Sixers opener Babar Azam is required to return to Pakistan to join his national teammates in camp, as preparations commence for upcoming international matches. As a result, Babar will depart Australia immediately and will not be available for selection for the remainder of the BBL | 15 Finals Series.”

The manager of the team also talked about Babar Azam’s journey with the team. He said, “The Sydney Sixers are sincerely grateful for the opportunity to have had Babar represent the club during his time in Australia. While we had initially planned for Babar to be available throughout the Finals, he has been an immensely valued member of our group, and we fully understand that the commencement of Pakistan's national camp means preparations are now underway for upcoming matches.”

2. Babar Azam in BBL

Babar Azam played his debut season in the Big Bash League. He was among the few Pakistani players who were all set to make their debut in the BBL altogether. But his performances didn't come out as one could expect.

Babar Azam in BBL:

• Innings: 11
• Not Out: 2
• Runs: 202
• Average: 22.44
• Strike Rate: 103.06
• 50s: 2

Except for the two half-centuries he scored, Babar Azam was honestly not able to shine well in this tournament. As compared to his performances in the other T20 leagues, it remained the worst in the Australian conditions.

3. Babar Azam and Steve Smith Incident

Babar Azam and Steve Smith had an incident which made Babar upset. It happened a few days back, when both of the players had moments while fielding and batting both. When the team was fielding, Smith thought Babar Azam would stop the ball from reaching the boundary. But Babar didn't even attempt to stop the same.

Later when both of them were batting together, Smith found it easier to score boundaries as compared to Babar Azam. Due to this reason, he also denied a single to Babar, and went on to smash sixes for the team. Babar was not happy with the same and he ended up being dismissed in the very next over.

It was seen that the Pakistani batsman was unhappy, as he even smashed his bat on the boundary line. Sydney Sixers captain, Moises Henriques, also talked about this incident recently. He said that it took some time for Babar Azam to finally settle down after the incident.

Henriques said, "It took a couple of days for that to settle down. To be honest, think it's just a bit of a misunderstanding of culture of each other. It's a pretty common thing in our culture, and maybe for him (Babar) he wasn't used to it and didn't quite understand. Once it was explained to him he was absolutely fine. They've kissed and made up and it's two of the greats back friendly again.”