Babar Azam found himself in the throes of criticism as his sluggish batting mode has yet again got a lot of stick from fans and former Pakistani cricketers. Pakistan skipper had a torrid time with the bat as he managed to score only 124 runs in seven matches with a pitiful average of 17.1 and an underwhelming strike rate of 93.
In the final on November 13 at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) Babar again turned up with the same lethargic approach and managed 32 runs off 28 deliveries after completely misreading a googly by Adil Rashid and awkwardly giving his wicket away. While Pakistani fans were understandably miffed, veteran cricketer Shoaib Malik, who was snubbed from the World Cup for Iftikhar Ahmed, and former Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq have a piece of advice for the opener.
Over the years, Babar's struggles against off-spin have become more noticeable and to contend with this weakness Malik shared his erudite opinion and urged Babar to "watch a lot of videos". "If you are not able to check a spinner’s hand, you need to watch a lot of videos." Malik said on how to tackle googly on A Sports.
He further added that Babar needs to tweak his batting stance when facing spin, as his "planted legs" cause are the reason for his dismal show against spinners.
“Babar needs to make changes in his batting. If your legs are planted, you still manage against pacers. But you can’t play a spinner with planted legs. For example, Babar thought Rashid bowled him leg spin and prepared to play in the covers but since it was a googly, he could not do anything but get out."
On the panel with Malik was former coach and cricketer of Pakistan, Misbah whose views were in accordance with Malik's. In a sports show, he opined Babar Azam's inability to read the spin and pre-empting a shot land him in trouble.
“If you are not able to read the bowl, never go to play this square off the wicket. Because once your bat goes out to play, it will land you in trouble. So if you are not able to understand it, just go and play straight. We have discussed this in Hasaranga’s case as well but our batsmen play cut without reading the ball."
