Former Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria has said that Babar Azam hasn’t scored runs for the longest time; when he does, they are scored solely against Zimbabwe. His intent and abilities were questioned by the cricketing community.
Babar has struggled to attain the best form in the ongoing Champions Trophy, where he pepped himself up for a big knock with a 90-ball 64 against New Zealand in a mammoth chase of 321.
After some crisp shots against India to set the tone for a big one, Babar edged one outside off to be caught behind.
“Babar has not been scoring runs for a while now. But whenever Babar scores runs, it’s always against Zimbabwe or other smaller teams. One would expect he would score against bigger teams. There seems to be no intent,” Kaneria told ANI.
Babar lost his No.1 rank in ODIs to India’s star batter Shubman Gill, having bagged the top position two years ago. For the last two years, Babar has aggregated 1,442 runs in 35 innings at an average of 45 with a strike rate of 82.49, which stands as the third worst among players with more than 1,000 runs scored during this period.
“There’s no depth in batting. Salman Agha and Khushdil Shah sometimes contribute a little. Saud Shakeel is technically a sound batter. But Rizwan’s bat seems to have gone cold,” Kaneria said.
Pakistan had lost its first two games to New Zealand and India, and the crushing defeat from Bangladesh in the hands of New Zealand sealed their fate.
They have one last fight against Bangladesh on February 27 in Rawalpindi.
The amount of disappointment and anger in the Pakistan Cricket Board is quite substantial regarding the exit of its national team from the tournament, but it has decided to keep its mouth shut on the side’s affairs until the end of the Champions Trophy on March 9.
Allegedly, the officials were deeply pained by the way the team performed in the Champions Trophy, particularly against their arch-rivals India.
Sources maintain that the Pakistan Cricket Board sees this tournament’s successful hosting as a stepping stone for getting more international events into the country. Kaneria had previously commented that the PCB was so busy improving infrastructure that they forgot to pick a good team for the tournament.
