Nasser Hussain: “I wish people will cut him a little bit of slack because he’ll go through periods when he doesn’t get runs, and in this part of the world you get absolutely vilified”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Ex-England skipper Nasser Hussain has urged everyone to cut Pakistan captain Babar Azam some slack, saying he shouldn’t be “vilified” when he goes through rough patches.
Azam recently struggled during the 2022 T20 World Cup, where he scored 124 runs in seven matches, which included a top score of 53, at an average of 17.71 and a strike-rate of 93.23.
Even though Pakistan still made it to the final, people still had the 28-year-old in their crosshairs and were criticising him to an incredible extent.
This continued during the recent home season as Pakistan lost 3-0 in their Test series against England before drawing their two-Test series against New Zealand 0-0. They subsequently lost the three-match ODI series that followed 2-1.
Azam was in solid form against both sides, but it didn’t stop him from getting called out constantly.
Hussain feels this has to stop and pointed out that all batsmen, including the greats of the game, went through periods of immense hardship.
Instead of being taunted and lambasted for it, people should instead look to encourage and support Azam during his toughest moments, he added.
“I wish people will cut him a little bit of slack because he’ll go through periods when he doesn’t get runs, and in this part of the world you get absolutely vilified,” the well-known cricket commentator told Cricwick as quoted by NDTV.
Azam is now taking part in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he is captaining the Peshawar Zalmi.
In the nine games he has played, he has accumulated 416 runs, which includes a century and four fifties, at an average of 52 and a strike-rate of 146.47.
The Zalmi’s next match will be against Islamabad United as they face off in Eliminator 1 on Thursday.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 8: Babar Azam, Sherfane Rutherford, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Haris, Aamir Jamal, Salman Irshad, Tom-Kohler Cadmore, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Rovman Powell, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Danish Aziz, Arshad Iqbal, Saim Ayub, Usman Qadir, Suifyan Muqeem, Haseebullah, Jimmy Neesham, Khurram Shahzad, Haris Sohail, Richard Gleeson (partial replacement for Rovman Powell), Peter Hatzoglou (partial replacement for Mujeeb ur Rahman), Shakib Al Hasan (available for playoffs), Azmatullah Omarzai