Babar Azam calling Saud Shakeel “Chota Don” among Practice Sessions…

After a forgetful ODI World cup in 2023, where Pak managed to win 4 out of 9 matches, the team was training hard for the three test match tour of Australia. Pak Cricket Team was at No1 position at the time according to the WTC rankings but hadn’t won any test series in Australia. 

The incident took place in the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi where the team was involved in a practice session. Despite the several changes in the setup and poor performance in the World Cup, the mood was light. Players were seen having fun with each other during training and in those moments, now Pak team captain and batsman Babar Azam coined the term Chota don on his teammate Saud Shakeel. 

Babar was named captain for the ODI World Cup and after that his captaincy was taken away putting Shaan Masood in place of him in the Test Format while Shaheen Shah Afridi was named T20 internationals captain but after a period of a year, the captaincy was again handed back to Babar in 2024 before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup that India won defeating the Proteas in the final while Pak had a horrible tournament and couldn’t qualify for the Super 8 and came back home.

Saud Shakeel is a left hand orthodox spinner along with a left hand batter. He debuted for Pak in July 2021. He made his test debut against England in December 2022. His first exposure as a player came when he played the Under 19 World Cup in 2014 where he was captaining the team.