Gautam Gambhir: “Babar Azam hasn’t played any impactful innings. Records and rankings are overrated. The real number one is the one who wins matches”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir believes Pakistan superstar Babar Azam cannot be the “real number one” batsman as he “hasn’t played any impactful innings.”
Azam’s form had been an issue going into the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup as he was not scoring runs consistently.
The 29-year-old did find some rhythm during the tournament as he made 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
However, Gambhir noted that he was not able to convert his starts into big scores, which could have won Pakistan many of the games they lost.
“Babar Azam hasn’t played any impactful innings. Records and rankings are overrated. The real number one is the one who wins matches,” he told Star Sports as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan won their first two matches against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before falling to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite bouncing back to triumph over Bangladesh and New Zealand, they failed to make it to the semi-finals.
The men in green concluded their campaign in disappointing fashion as England crushed them by 93 runs.
Azam, who resigned as captain after the World Cup, will now represent Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which will start 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
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