Consecutive poor performances during two ICC tournaments, such as the ODI world cup last year and the T20 World Cup recently held, have seen Pakistan captain Babar Azam receive a lot of criticism.
The latest person to criticize Babar is Parthiv Patel, former Indian keeper who blamed him for being too self-centered in his approach to captaincy.
Babar started as an opener at the T20 World Cup where he failed to perform miserably and this led to questions about why Fakhar Zaman, who is normally more effective and freer flowing at the top of an inning, was demoted to No.4.
“The captain wanted (Zaman) had to come down because he desired opening. In case your skipper lacks team spirit then there is nothing you can do,” Parthiv said in a talk show whose video clip went viral on social media.
“Nothing new in it. Everyone says that, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis,” added Parthiv.
Pakistan’s T20 format does not have batsmen suited for it according to ex-India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel.
“T20 players; they don’t have cricketers like this. The way cricket is going right now, we are talking about strike rate of 150-160 and these guys are still in the 120s. They are far behind than any other international side,” reckoned Parthiv.
After resigning as Pakistan captain following their poor performance during the 50-over world cup in India last year, Babar was reinstated only for Shaheen Shah Afridi’s replacement as captain be taken by someone else after one series with Shaheen being replaced by Babar again by PCB.
However both teams lost early at T20 World Cups: while Pakistani team was shocked by USA and India played well only in the first group stage match against archrivals.
India won the tournament without dropping a game after defeating South Africa by seven runs in the final.