Imran Nazir: “A team doesn’t rely solely on one player; there are 10 other players who also contribute. He is doing his part; what about the rest?”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan cricketer Imran Nazir has slammed the national team’s reliance on Babar Azam and asked what the other batsmen are doing.
He noted that the men in green cannot always expect Azam to score runs for them and need other players to stand up and contribute.
The 29-year-old has been Pakistan’s most consistent run-scorer in all three formats for the past couple of years, but lately, his form has been in decline.
Since every cricketer goes through rough patches, Nazir pointed out that the other batsmen are in the team for a reason and need to justify their selection by rising to the occasion when their country needs them most.
“A team doesn’t rely solely on one player; there are 10 other players who also contribute. He is doing his part; what about the rest?” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam recently featured in Pakistan’s three-Test series against Australia and finished with 126 runs at an average of 21.
He fared a lot better in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand as he accumulated 213 runs, which included three fifties, at an average of 42.60 and a strike-rate of 142.
Currently, Azam is captaining the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he has scored 330 runs in five matches, which includes a century and two fifties, at an average of 82.50 and a strike-rate of 151.37.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 9: Babar Azam (captain), Rovman Powell, Saim Ayub, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Asif Ali, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Naveen-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Salman Irshad, Arif Yaqoob, Umair Afridi, Dan Mousley, Haseebullah Khan, Mohammad Zeeshan, Mehran Mumtaz, Luke Wood, Sufiyan Muqeem, Waqar Salamkheil, Arshad Iqbal, Gus Atkinson, Shamar Joseph