Former Pakistan captains have spoken their mind out on skipper Babar Azam, accusing him of being selfish and insecure, a day after Pakistan’s one run loss to Zimbabwe at the Optus Stadium in Perth. On Thursday, chasing a modest target of 130, Babar Azam-led side made a mess of the target as they lost the match by one run. It all boiled down to 3 runs off last ball where lanky tail-ender Shaheen Shah Afridi could only muster a single. Meanwhile fans and pundits alike felt it was the misfiring top order that had actually led to this loss.
Both the openers, skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were again not upto the mark, as they both were out with the score reading 23. Furthermore, Babar could only muster 4.
“The easiest place to bat in T20s is opening. You have not let anyone else open in the last two years. I have discussed this with Misbah before, that why don’t you try something new? You have tried it out with bowling, but with batting, we have tried all the experiments with the middle order. But the openers have remained the same and they have batted 14-15 overs together,” Waqar said on Pakistan sports show – The Pavillion as he slammed Pakistan skipper.
Meanwhile his former colleague Wasim Akram recalled his days with Karachi Kings where he coached Babar, revealing that he was reluctant to give up his opening slot.
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“All of these things begin at the top. And at the top is your captain. If your captain plays for himself and is insecure. If your captain scores runs and lets other batters play at his position, you get to know that your captain is ready to sacrifice himself for you, this Babar has to learn,” Wasim said.
Babar Azam is in the midst of a severe run drought since Asia Cup. Although, he did score a century against England, but he couldn’t maintain that momentum as he landed in New Zealand. He then failed to click in Australia where the T20 World Cup is being played.
“I have been through this by the way with Babar, at Karachi Kings, yes. In the team we had a couple of bad phases and I requested him once or twice nicely, that please come down at number 3, we’ll try something different. Let (Martin) Guptill bat at the top, seeing he is an opener. And he (Babar) said I would not go down, you ask Sharjeel to bat at 3, and he (Sharjeel) is a natural opener too. And these little things that the captain does, the team senses too,” Wasim recounted his time at Karachi Kings.
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