Lahore: Pakistan had to face defeat despite scoring 556 runs in the first Test match against England. After this defeat, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) dropped about five players from the second and third Tests. These included Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi. Fakhar Zaman had strongly criticized the PCB for excluding Babar from the Test team.

The PCB has now issued a show cause notice to its centrally contracted player Fakhar Zaman for alleged violation of the players' code of conduct. Fakhar, in a social media post on Sunday, questioned the decision to drop Babar Azam from the Pakistan team for the second and third Tests against England.

The PCB has informed Fakhar in the notice that he has violated his contract by criticizing the board's policies and selection. He has been asked to respond to the show cause notice by October 21.

"It is worrying to hear suggestions about dropping Babar Azam. India did not drop the struggling Virat Kohli from the playing XI between 2020 and 2023 when his averages were 19.33, 28.21, and 26.50 respectively," Fakhar wrote on the social media platform X.

He said, "If we are thinking of dropping our key player and Pakistan's best-ever batsman from the team, then it can send a deeply negative message to the entire team. There is still time to avoid pressing the 'panic button'. We should focus on protecting our key players instead of weakening them."