After the Test series debacle against England at home, the chorus for Babar Azam to step down as Pakistan skipper rose. Post that Pakistan managed to draw the two-match Test series against New Zealand and are off to a winning start in the three-match ODI series which kicked off on January 9 (Monday).
Meanwhile, former Pakistan skipper and ex-coach Misbah-Ul-Haq made a huge claim by saying that some people in Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) are trying to weaken team's skipper Babar Azam's position. He went on to say that this will have an adverse impact on the team's dressing room.
"Cricket is my blood and I watch cricket matches and read about cricket all the time. And from what I see Babar Azam’s position in the team is being weakened," Misbah told reporters in Lahore on Tuesday.
The 48-year-old also said if the PCB had issues with Babar's captaincy then they should sit down with him and the selectors and discuss it across the table. Misbah also said that one can see this easily by watching the press conferences of Babar.
"Look at some of the questions being asked to him what do they indicate he is being weakened as a captain and I am afraid that will have adverse effects on the team’s dressing room." Misbah, who held the all powerful positions of head coach and chief selector in 2019-2020,
"If you put pressure on someone like this it eventually will disturb the team and that is not good for Pakistan cricket.” Misbah, who is Pakistan’s most successful Test captain, feels frequent changes had weakened and disturbed the Test squad and it reflected in the team's performance against England and New Zealand in recent time.
"Test teams are built after a lot of hard work and time and frequent changes don’t help. We had a good test side but the changes disturbed everything," he said.
Misbah said if the PCB wanted to make changes it should talk to Babar openly so that there is no bad blood in future.
"Pakistan no doubt has a very good white ball squad so at least in those formats they are no problems at all. I personally would support Babar to the end,” he added.
Pakistan won the the first ODI against New Zealand by six wickets riding on Naseem Shah's fifer and Mohammad Rizwan's brilliant fifty.
