Ramiz Raza holds New Zealand Cricket responsible for Babar Azam's injury

Pakistan cricket team had received a massive blow when their skipper and key batsman Babar Azam had suffered a thumb injury during a practice session ahead of the New Zealand vs Pakistan series. Azam has been ruled out of the three-match T20I series against the Black Caps, starting from December 18 in Auckland. Also, his presence in the two Test matches between the two cricketing nations is doubtful.

In the meantime, Pakistan’s former cricketer Ramiz Raza blamed the New Zealand authorities for not providing proper training centres to the Men in Green. He also blamed the poor condition of the practice grounds in New Zealand for the injury sustained by Babar Azam. The prolific batsman had injured his right thumb during the throw-down session and the X-Rays in a local hospital had confirmed a fracture.

In a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Ramiz claimed that the place offered to the Pakistan team for training, Queenstown, isn’t appropriate and is definitely not suitable for cricket. The 58-year-old was rather surprised when he learned about Queenstown getting allocated to the visiting nation.

Ramiz Raza questions the condition of pitch in the training centre

Further in the video, the former cricketer pointed out that there is a possibility of an uneven bounce on the pitch of the training centre which resulted in Babar sustaining a thumb injury.

He was also critical about the fact that the venue may not have been of the required standards due to the lack of regular cricketing activities at the place. Moreover, he reckoned that it should be mandatory to give attention to the practice centres while planning for an overseas tour.

The Pakistan team had to survive a mandatory 14-day quarantine period in New Zealand before beginning their training as various members of their squad had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Ramiz Raja believes that spending time in isolation without any physical activity might have contributed to the skipper’s injury as after coming out of quarantine the cricketer’s reflexes would have been slow.

This would have been Babar Azam’s first tour as Pakistan’s captain across all the formats. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had recently appointed Babar as the leader in the purest format of the game.