Former England captain Nasser Hussain believes that former Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is under immense pressure as his fifty-less drought in Test cricket continues. Hussain is surprised to see that Babar is struggling to score runs on batting-friendly pitches of Pakistan. He feels that relinquishing captaincy in the white-ball format may have had an effect on him psychologically.
"Their (Pakistan) best player - a world-class player - Babar Azam is horrendously out of form. It's nine Test matches without a half century - on these pitches! Maybe that's psychological, with everything that he's been through, giving up the white-ball captaincy? In this part of the world, if you are Babar Azam and you go two games without a half century or a hundred, the pressure builds, let alone eight, nine Tests. The pressure is on him, definitely," the cricketer-turned-commentator told Sky Sports as Babar registered scores of 30 and 5 in high-scoring Multan Test.
Babar’s struggle continues
While Pakistan have gone without a win at home in last 11 Tests, Babar has not registered a fifty-plus score since December 2022 when he scored 161 against New Zealand in Karachi. Before the Multan test, he was lacklustre against Bangladesh in the two-Test series scoring just 64 runs from four innings. He has been subject to harsh criticism by several former cricketers for not being able to perform across formats.
Hussain lists out problems with current Pakistan team
Hussain also pointed out to Pakistan's struggle in all departments of the game. He recalled legendary Pakistan pacers who posed a threat to oppositions in the last few decades.
"Spin hasn't seemed to be much of a threat. Where are they with their spinners? Historically, we would have played against Abdul Qadir, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed. They've always produced great mystery spinners," the 56-year-old said.
Pakistan's pace battery lacked the firepower to unsettle England batters as they went on to post 823/7 before Ollie Pope declared the innings. Hussain continued to underline the several problems with the current Pakistan team.
"And express pace: you wouldn't say any of their three seamers that they are playing at the moment are express pace. That's a dangerous combination. You have a top order that's failing in the second innings and you're not sure what pitch to prepare that suits your bowling attack," he added.
The second Test of the three-Test series will begin on October 15 at the same venue. Then the teams will head of Rawalpindi for the last Test starting October 24.
