Mohammad Hafeez: “I feel sorry for Babar Azam. For a quality player like him, to have a major dip during ICC events is a big concern. And only Babar Azam can answer this. Is it because of his captaincy?”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan team director Mohammad Hafeez has admitted it should be a “big concern” that limited overs captain Babar Azam is unable to perform well in ICC events.
Hafeez pointed out that the 29-year-old has no problems scoring big runs in bilateral series, but when World Cups come around, he is unable to replicate that level of success.
The 43-year-old wants answers, but conceded that only Azam himself is likely to know the cause of his struggles in ICC tournaments.
“I feel sorry for Babar Azam. For a quality player like him, to have a major dip during ICC events is a big concern. And only Babar Azam can answer this. Is it because of his captaincy?” he told PTV Sports as quoted by NDTV.
“I want him to be the highest run-getter for Pakistan and he has that capacity. But when it comes to bilateral series, Babar is on top but in ICC events he is so low down. So this big dip in form is cause for concern and only Babar can answer it or maybe someone else.”
Azam recently led Pakistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup and accumulated 122 runs in four matches at an average of 40.66 and a strike-rate of 101.66.
The men in green lost to the United States of America and India before fighting back to defeat Canada and Ireland.
Even though they won those two games, it was not enough to get them through to 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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