Last Update on: November 13th, 2023 at 09:00 pm
The former Pakistan skipper opened up about the leadership of Babar Azam. He admitted that the right-hander made a lot of mistakes as a captain of the team and he didn’t groom well in the 3-4 years he has been the leader of the team.
Pakistan’s early exit from the ICC World Cup 2023 has put captain Babar Azam under a lot of scanner. He has been criticized a lot for his poor performances as a leader of the team and also there have been various talks about sacking him from the post.
Babar Azam’s Men suffered thrashing losses in the World Cup against India, Australia, Afghanistan, South Africa, and England and failed to qualify for the semi-final. The Men in Green struggled with both bat as well as the ball and ended with just four wins
Clouds are hovering over the place of Babar Azam as a leader of the team. Many reports have suggested that PCB might sack him as a captain. Also, there were some reports which suggested that he himself would step down as a white-ball captain of the team.
Shahid Afridi said that when he raised questions over Babar Azam’s captaincy, people criticized him but they need to realize that he didn’t step up. He admitted that the right-hander is good and he wanted him to be a good captain but that didn’t happen. Speaking during an event, he explained:
“I am a big fan of Babar and so are many others. People criticized me for criticizing Babar’s captaincy (aap Babar ki kaptani ke piche pade hain). Babar has always been like a younger brother to me. I wanted Babar to be on the list of top captains. He has been captaining for 3-4 years. During this period, there was never a sword hanging over his captaincy.”
We have seen a lot of mistakes – Shahid Afridi on Babar Azam’s captaincy
Shahid Afridi further went on to say that they all expected him to prove himself as a leader but that didn’t happen. He while highlighting the role of a leader admitted that Babar Azam made a lot of mistakes. He elaborated:
“We all supported him. We thought in 3-4 years his grooming would make him better. He would be able to prove himself as a captain and a leader but that hasn’t happened. We have seen a lot of mistakes. Leader has to be strong. He has to take everyone along with him. A leader does not have one or two players. He has 7-8 performers, who take them together forward.”
Babar Azam also didn’t have a great outing with the bat in the ICC World Cup 2023. He scored 320 runs in 9 games and scored just four fifties.
