Babar Azam will open for Pakistan in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy only for the third time in his storied career. The former Pakistan captain has agreed to the challenge after the selectors requested him to do so following the injury to their young opening batter Saim Ayub during the Test series against South Africa.

Notably, it has been understood that the selectors gave Babar the example of Sachin Tendulkar who made a move from middle-order to opener after 69 ODIs of his career. The latter notched up 82 runs off just 49 balls in his first match as an opener against New Zealand in Auckland in 1994 and as they say, the rest is history. Sachin retired as the greatest batsman ever on this planet earth while scoring the first-ever double-century in the ODI format as well.

"A day after Saim got injured it became clear that he would be out of cricket for at least two months making him an unlikely starter for the Champions Trophy," a reliable PCB source told PTI. He further added that the selectors Aaqib Javed and Azhar Ali asked Babar if he was ready to open once Saim Ayub's status was clear. Interestingly, this move is not only for the Champions Trophy but post that as well in the 50-over format. Notably, Babar has opened only twice in ODIs back in 2015 against England scoring 62* and 4 runs.

"The selectors told Babar they felt he could also emulate what Tendulkar had done as an opener as he had already opened a lot in T20 cricket. Babar after giving it due thought agreed to the challenge," the source further added. Moreover, the selectors were not willing to go back to Imam-ul-Haq or any other opener and instead had Saud Shakeel as a backup in the squad while recalling Khushdil Shah, Faheem Ashraf and Usman Khan strengthening their all-round and middle-order options.