Babar Azam's November Test: Yousuf's Blunt Advice

Pakistan lifted a trophy in Lahore on October 31, and yet the loudest conversation in Pakistan cricket since then has not been about the trophy at all. It has been about Babar Azam — and about whether the country's finest batter of the modern era should be playing domestic cricket right now, or packing his bags for an academy on the other side of the world.

Former captain Mohammad Yousuf lit the fuse on Sunday, November 1, with a blunt post on X that has split fans down the middle. Babar, meanwhile, has chosen his own answer: he is playing. On Tuesday, November 3, he walked out for Lahore Whites in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy against a FATA side led by none other than Shaheen Shah Afridi — a domestic fixture that has suddenly become the most watched first-class match in the country.

This is the story of Babar Azam's November: the advice, the numbers behind the noise, the audition already under way in Islamabad, and the two Tests against Sri Lanka that will deliver the final verdict.

Yousuf's message: "Please listen now"

Yousuf did not mince words. In his post, reported by PTI and carried widely, he argued that Babar should not be playing first-class cricket until he fixes his technical issues through specialised coaching — and that struggling in domestic cricket could further damage his confidence and career.

"I don't think Babar Azam should be playing first-class cricket until he fixes his technical issues through specialized coaching. Struggling in domestic cricket could further harm his confidence and career. Send him to an academy in England or Australia. He is still Pakistan's top player, and with the right guidance and a little effort, he can return to his best. I said this four years ago, and nobody listened. Please listen now."

The former captain, who has also worked as Pakistan's batting coach, suggested the same remedy in a second message: that Babar should go to South Africa or Australia and simply focus on working on his batting. The logic is straightforward — a player of Babar's stature does not need more matches, he needs a technical reset away from the glare, before the flaws harden into habit.

Yousuf's timing was deliberate. The post came a day after Pakistan's tri-series final win over Sri Lanka in Lahore — a night of celebration in which Babar, once again, had not contributed with the bat.

The numbers behind the noise

The debate is not built on one bad day. It is built on a pattern that has become impossible to ignore.

In the home ODI tri-series against England and Sri Lanka, Babar scored 118 runs in five innings at an average of 23.60 and a strike rate of 74.21, without a single half-century. His scores read 45, 34, 10, 29 and 0 — the last of them a five-ball duck in the final, in a chase of 326 that Pakistan won thanks to Fakhar Zaman's 127. The trophy was lifted; the captain-in-waiting of the Test side had made no mark on it.

Zoom out and the picture gets starker. Babar has scored only one century in ODI cricket in the last three years, against a career tally of 20 hundreds in the format. Across all formats in 2026, he has 815 runs in 22 matches at an average of 37.04, with six half-centuries and one century and a highest score of 88. In Test cricket, he has not scored a century since his 161 against New Zealand in Karachi in December 2022, and in this year's Test series against England he made 97 runs in four innings — 76, 8, 6 and 7.

These are not the numbers of a player in a dip. They are the numbers of a player whose game, at the very top level, is being found out — and whose critics now include some of the most respected voices in Pakistan cricket.

The other side: "He knows his game very well"

Not everyone agrees with Yousuf. Former all-rounder Imad Wasim has publicly defended Babar, questioning the level of criticism directed at the star batter, and Waqar Younis has also spoken up for him. The most important voice of support, though, has come from inside the dressing room.

Shaheen Shah Afridi, Pakistan's ODI captain, confirmed before the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy began that Babar would play first-class cricket against his own side — and backed him to come through it. "He knows his game very well," Shaheen said. "He is well aware of his game plan and how he needs to approach his cricket. Unfortunately, he has had a few dismissals that did not go his way, but that is part and parcel of the game. I am confident he will bounce back."

Shaheen has his own stake in this fixture. He is leading FATA in the tournament and has spoken openly about wanting a Test comeback himself, saying he will play the first-class match and work on improving his bowling. So the Diamond Cricket Ground in Islamabad is hosting something rare: Pakistan's ODI captain bowling at Pakistan's Test captain, with both men playing for their international futures.

The audition: Lahore Whites vs FATA in Islamabad

The 69th edition of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan's premier first-class competition, began on Tuesday, November 3. Eight teams contest the Gold tier across Islamabad, Abbottabad and Rawalpindi, with the competition running to December 12 and a five-day final scheduled for December 15-19. The 12-team Silver tier runs simultaneously as a qualification pathway for next season.

In the opening round, Lahore Whites won the toss against FATA at the Diamond Cricket Ground and chose to field. By stumps on day one, FATA had reached 311 for 6 in 73 overs. Number six Fawad Arshad led the batting with an unbeaten 91 off 157 balls, helped by wicketkeeper-batter Rehan Afridi's 69 off 92 balls, the pair adding 132 for the sixth wicket. Salman Khan Jr made 33, Mohammad Farooq 32, Mohammad Usman Khan 29 and Mohammad Wasim Khan 29. For Lahore Whites, Hammad Aziz took 4 for 81. FATA captain Shaheen Shah Afridi was unbeaten on 6 at the close.

At the time of writing, Babar had yet to bat — Lahore's innings, and his examination, were still to come as the match moved into day two on Wednesday. That is worth stating plainly: no score of his from this match exists yet, and any report claiming otherwise is getting ahead of the game.

Elsewhere on day one, the Gold tier's other matches produced centuries for Peshawar Blues' Mohammad Rizwan (111 not out) and Najab (101 not out), while Mohammad Huraira made 117 — a reminder that runs are available for batters in form, and that Babar's innings will be judged against exactly that standard.

What comes next: Sri Lanka, Rawalpindi and Lahore

The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy fixture is only the warm-up. The real examination begins on Monday, November 9, when Pakistan host Sri Lanka in the first Test at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, running to November 13. The second Test follows at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, from November 17 to 21. Both matches are part of the World Test Championship 2025-27 and start at 9:30am PKT.

Babar will captain Pakistan in the series, leading a 14-member squad in which Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq have not been included. The challenge is obvious: Sri Lanka's bowlers have just spent a month bowling at Babar in the tri-series, and Test cricket, with its longer spells and relentless plans, gives a batter nowhere to hide.

That is what makes November such a defining month. A big score in Islamabad, followed by runs against Sri Lanka, and the Yousuf debate fades into background noise. A failure in both, and the questions stop being about form and start being about selection — including for the 2027 ODI World Cup, for which Babar's white-ball place is already under scrutiny after he lost his T20I spot.

Domestic runs or an overseas academy?

Strip away the emotion and there are two respectable arguments here. Yousuf's case is that technique is fixed in the nets, not in matches — and that a proud player failing in public, in a domestic competition where every dismissal is filmed and debated, risks the one thing no coaching can restore: belief. The counter-case is that Babar has always been a rhythm player, that red-ball runs in familiar conditions are the fastest route back to confidence, and that the Test captain cannot credibly lead a side into a home series having hidden from domestic cricket.

Babar has, in effect, sided with the second argument. He is playing, in whites, against his own ODI captain's team, in front of cameras and critics. If he scores heavily, the academy debate dies on its own. If he does not, Yousuf's "please listen now" will echo a lot louder in Rawalpindi on November 9.

Either way, November will define Babar Azam. The audition has begun.

Photos: Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore — Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0 / CC0, illustrative, not match photos). Sources: PTI via multiple outlets; A-Sports; Geo Super; Cricket Addictor; PPA Islamabad; Grassroots Cricket; NajamSports; PCB schedule reporting. Day-one scores from the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy opening round, November 3, 2026.