Babar Azam opts out of Pakistan's National T20 Championship to fix batting flaws before PSL

Karachi: Former Pakistan captain and batting star Babar Azam has opted out of the National T20 Championship to focus on correcting the "flaws in his technique" ahead of the Pakistan Super League starting March 26.

Dropped from the away one-day series against Bangladesh after a forgettable T20 World Cup, Babar's name was included in the Lahore Whites squad for the National T20 Championship currently underway in Peshawar.

But it has emerged that he will not take part in the domestic competition and is instead working with some coaches on his batting.

There is no word on who these coaches are but a source close to the Pakistan Cricket Board said Babar and the team management had decided he should work on his "batting technique flaws" instead of playing in the national event.

Babar will appear in the PSL 11 for Peshawar Zalmi and open the batting for them.

The batter, who was once ranked top in the ICC charts in all formats, has struggled to repeat his old form since 2024 and was dropped from the final Super Eight match against Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup that India won.

He has not played any domestic competition since 2020 aside from the PSL.

Babar had also skipped two first-class games in the premier red-ball domestic competition late last year despite struggling for form even at that time.