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Babar Azam had a torrid time with the willow at Asia Cup 2022 with just 68 runs in 5 games comprising at an average of 13 and a strike rate well below par of 107. Along with his no-show form with the bat, his captaincy has been called into question. With the 27-year-old under pressure decisions being taken stock of by many Pakistani critics, Kamran Akmal uncovers the words of wisdom he imparted a few years ago.
Kamran had a piece of advice and a conflicting one at that for the skipper of Pakistan that he should stick with his batting role for the moment, score another 20-35 hundreds, and catch up with the high standards set by the likes of Virat Kohli and Steve Smith. However, Kamran is also of the opinion that confiscating Babar of his captaincy would be counterproductive for Pakistan cricket as such a knee-jerk move could put Pakistan cricket on the back foot.
”I had also told him to only concentrate on his batting. He was scoring runs and would have continued to do so. The flow was beautiful. People enjoyed watching him bat. With captaincy, there will be pressure, which will affect his batting, and his approach. And somewhere, that is visible now. But at the same time removing him as captain right now would be a big blunder on the part of the team management. Pakistan cricket will go back," the former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter had said.
"But now he has matured. It's been 2-3 years since he has been captaining, but it still should have been better. The way he captained in the final of the Asia Cup final, he has done better than that in the past. He has utilised his bowlers - like Nawaz - really well. But when you don't have form, you can make a few changes at the top. Perhaps push Rizwan down to 3, bat there yourself. Make Fakhar open, maybe he can come back to form. So there are the decisions a captain should take," the 40-year-old added.
