Pakistan Cricket Team Captain Babar Azam is facing criticism after the recently concluded Asia Cup 202. The series has raised a lot of questions regarding his batting intent. The team was heavily reliant on Rizwan to produce match-winning knocks which is not a great sign in a mega event.
The Men in Green are going to play 7 T20I matches which would be ample to figure out the best combination for IC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. The skipper would be well aware of the fact that he needs to pull up his socks as the middle order of Pakistan is a bit fragile.
Babar Azam & Aaqib Javed War of Words:
Aaqib Javed shared an anecdote on Pak.tv where he criticized the selectors for relying too much on Babar & Rizwan. “Our only mindset is to persist with these two openers and rely on them. They are effective, but where? When you have scores of 150-160 or lower. When we have a match with Karachi Kings and the total is 180+, we never really tried or wished to get Babar Azam out early. He bats at his own pace, and the (required) run rate keeps rising. Mohammad Rizwan also did well in the PSL, but when these two bat together, you see similar performances from them.”. Ahead of the start of the England series at home on Tuesday, Babar was asked by a reporter about the strike rate criticism and he warned Javed of not making personal attacks, not just on him, but also on any member of the team.
Agar unko lagta hoga ki out na kaare toh achhi baat he mere liye. Har ek ka apna point of view hota he. I think it’s better if we focus now on the Pakistan team. Logon ki apni opinion hoti he. Na unki hum sunte he ki woh kya kehe rahein he, bahar ki batein humlog andar nehi laate na unse sunte he. Aap baat karein but mere kheyal se jab aap in cheezon se guzre hote he and saare players in cheezon se guzre he toh pata hi kitna mushkil hota he, kitna pressure hota he responsibilities hote he so personal attacks nehi hone chaiye, me puri team ki baat kar raha hu. (It’s okay if he feels that way. Everyone has their point of view and I think it’s better we think from Pakistan’s perspective. He might have his opinion; however, we don’t listen to him. We don’t discuss outer talks within the team. Every player has gone through tough situations in their career so there shouldn’t be any personal attacks),” he said.