Abdul Razzaq: “When Babar bats slowly it has an adverse effect on other batters who then can’t play their natural game”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq has blamed ex-captain Babar Azam for forcing other batsmen in the team to deviate from playing their natural game.
He noted that Azam bats too slowly, which ends up having a negative effect on the rest of the batting line-up as they find themselves under pressure to boost the run rate.
Razzaq urged the 29-year-old to increase his strike-rate when batting so that the men in green can post more competitive totals and potentially win more matches.
“When Babar bats slowly it has an adverse effect on other batters who then can’t play their natural game,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Azam stepped down as captain after the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he scored 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
Pakistan began with back-to-back wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before stumbling against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite bouncing back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they were unable to progress to the semi-finals.
The men in green ended their campaign in dismal fashion as England pummelled them by 93 runs.
Azam will now play for Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which gets underway on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi
[TS_Poll id=”100″]
I think that Pakistan will struggle on the Australian tour. Their unnatural focus on T20 and one day cricket and playing less than 5 test matches per year has destroyed their technique. It will take decades to fix. Or a completely new team only focused of test cricket.
I think now that the World Cup is over and all the changes have been made in terms of the captaincy and coaching staff, Pakistan need to play positive cricket and take on Australia with a fearless attitude. They have plenty of good batsmen and bowlers who can do well in Australia, but it all comes down to their mindset and approach during the Test series. If it’s not positive, they will struggle.
Abdul razzaq totally wrong baber is a great batter.
In every team have six or seven batters and all of them play in his style.You cannot talk about baber and Rizwan only , you have to talk about another batters what they are doing