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Pakistan failed to win the five-T20I series against New Zealand at home as Mark Chapman's maiden T20I century helped the visitors chase down 194. The second-string New Zealand side led by Tom Latham was able to recover from two games behind to draw the series. Even in the encounter that was abandoned due to rain, New Zealand were dominating the proceedings with the bat.
Following the series, once again Azam's captaincy was under the scanner. Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal was harsh in his criticism as he said that Azam does not know how to captain the side.
"Speaking of their mistakes, they deflect and accuse us of criticism. But our focus is on their captaincy, not their performance. We're not blind to their abilities," said Kamran [as quoted by Cricket Pakistan].
“He (Babar Azam) still doesn't know how to do captaincy after four years - he doesn't even know which bowler to give to ball to at what time. It's no surprise that they lost when they continued to make the same mistakes. We didn't control our errors, and that's why they emerged victorious,” the former keeper further said.
Akmal slammed Azam for his bowling chances in the slog overs of the fifth T20I as the hosts were not able to break the fifth-wicket partnership between Chapman and James Neesham.
"If both the left-handed batsmen were on the crease, the logical choice would have been to give the ball to Iftikhar Ahmed.
“But instead, we saw the leg-spinner Shadab Khan being given the over and was being continuously smashed by the New Zealand batters. It would have been wise to rest him and bring in another all-rounder to give the team a chance to regain their footing,” the 41-year-old added.
Azam became the first Pakistan batter to score a T20I ton against New Zealand but he could not make an impact in the rest three innings. He registered scores of 9, 1, and 19 in first, third and fifth T20I respectively.
Under Azam’s captaincy, Pakistan reached the T20 World Cup 2022 final in Australia. However, they failed to defend against a star-studded England lineup.
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