Pakistan and New Zealand will take on each other again for a three-match ODI series starting January 9 at the National Bank Cricket Arena in Karachi. However, this will be the first ODI match for Pakistan since their tour of the Netherlands in August 2022 as well. Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Babar Azam gave a sharp reply to a reporter regarding his captaincy as he faced criticism over his role as a captain.

However, a reporter questioned Babar Azam about quitting the captaincy in the Test format of the game before the first ODI. The Pakistani captain had a direct answer that was justified, but he looked irked by the question as well.

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“You’re on your way to becoming one of the batting greats. But players like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, and Saeed Anwar… were great batters but couldn’t be great captains. We couldn’t win a single Test in 8 attempts on home soil, do you think you should leave Test captaincy so that your target to become one of the greatest batters of the game becomes more easy?” the reporter asked.

“We are playing white ball cricket right now, Tests are over. If you have any question on the white-ball series, you ask that,” Babar Azam replied directly.

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“The Test season hasn’t gone according to expectations. It’s not an excuse but some of our players were unfit which disturbed our combination. Of course, there’s talk about the pitches, but conditions are different at every venue. We give our input on pitches, but you get the pitches you get, and after that, you have to execute your plans. You can’t just complain about losing a match because of pitches. We prepared them according to our plans, but results didn’t go our way” Babar Azam earlier said abut the Test series.