Rashid Latif: “Taking the captaincy back was the biggest mistake of his life at that point. That affected his batting as well, anyone could see that. He could’ve won Pakistan games, but it looks like he got under pressure because of taking [the] captaincy again”
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Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Rashid Latif believes Babar Azam accepting the captaincy again was the “biggest mistake of his life”.
Azam stepped down as skipper in all three formats in November 2023, but he was reappointed to lead in limited overs cricket in March 2024.
However, Latif feels the 29-year-old should have turned it down as all the leadership role has done is put him under pressure again and adversely affected his batting.
“I think when Babar Azam took back the captaincy, it was a mistake. When the team came back from India after losing in the (2023) World Cup, all the criticism was directed towards Babar. When they made him resign, all the sympathy went towards Babar,” he told ProSports as quoted by PakPassion on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Taking the captaincy back was the biggest mistake of his life at that point. That affected his batting as well, anyone could see that. He could’ve won Pakistan games, but it looks like he got under pressure because of taking [the] captaincy again.”
Azam recently led Pakistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup and scored 122 runs in four matches at an average of 40.66 and a strike-rate of 101.66.
Pakistan started their campaign with successive losses to the United States of America and India before bouncing back to defeat Canada and Ireland.
Even though they ended the group stage on a high, they were unable to book their spot in the Super Eights.
Pakistan Squad for 2024 T20 World Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abbas Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
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