Babar and Mohammad Rizwan combined to score 110 runs in 144 balls for the third wicket against Afghanistan, with both players also bringing up their fifties in the process. Babar looked far from his fluent self during his knock of 60 in 86 at a strike rate of 69.77 and was set up by Rashid, who dismissed him on the fifth ball of the 37th over of the innings.

The first four balls were all dots, played carefully by Babar back to the bowler. However, with the pressure increasing, he looked to go after the fifth ball, which was a quicker leg-break delivery on the off-stump. Babar did not move his feet, remained glued to the ground and could only manage an outside edge to the wicketkeeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who latched on to a sharp catch to dismiss the batter for 60. Babar was not pleased with his dismissal and was seen uttering words of frustration as he walked off.

Babar, whose struggles against Sri Lanka spinner Prabath Jayasuriya are well-known, has not found the going easy against Rashid either. He has been dismissed by the Afghanistan spinner six times in seven T20 innings, with Babar striking at 121.53 against him in the format. In ODIs, he has fallen to him twice out of four times, and while it is a small sample size, overall, Rashid has a stronghold on the batter.

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8th dismissal across formats for Babar Azam vs Rashid Khan in less than 120 balls.#AFGvPAK

— Rohit Sankar (@imRohit_SN) August 26, 2023

Pakistan eventually made 268-8 in their innings, with Rizwan top-scoring with 67.

Watch Babar Azam’s dismissal here:

Edged and Taken!@RashidKhan_19 gets into the act now as he removes @BabarAzam258 for 60 to give Afghanistan an important breakthrough! 👏#AfghanAtalan | #AFGvPAK | #SuperColaCup | #ByaMaidanGato pic.twitter.com/MRBrPX8GLN

— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) August 26, 2023