Shahid Afridi: “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”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan power-hitter Shahid Afridi said Babar Azam failed to prove himself as captain as he made a lot of mistakes during his three-year tenure.
Afridi pointed out that the 29-year-old was given three to four years to show he had what it took to be a good leader, but he failed to get better.
Having been under immense pressure, Azam eventually resigned from the leadership role in all three formats following the team’s elimination from the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
“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,” Afridi was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
In the World Cup, Azam scored 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
Pakistan won their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing four straight to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite bouncing back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they could not progress to the semi-finals.
The men in green concluded their campaign on a sour note as England demolished them by 93 runs.
Azam is now playing in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against Australia and made scores of 21 and 14 in the first Test in Perth, which Pakistan lost by 360 runs.
The second Test got underway on December 26 in Melbourne.
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, Mohammad Nawaz and Shaheen Shah Afridi
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