Parthiv Patel: “Pakistan used to have great players like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq. Now they have Babar Azam & Mohammad Rizwan, the standards have dropped so much”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former India wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel has taken a dig at Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, saying they are nowhere near as good as the batsmen Pakistan used to have.
Patel noted that the men in green had elite cricketers like “Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq”, but referenced Azam and Rizwan when saying “the standards have dropped so much”.
Even though Azam and Rizwan have been Pakistan’s most consistent run-scorers over the past few years, the 39-year-old from Ahmedabad doesn’t rate them as highly as the legends of the past.
“Pakistan used to have great players like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq. Now they have Babar Azam & Mohammad Rizwan, the standards have dropped so much (laughs),” he was quoted as saying by journalist Farid Khan on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Azam recently captained Pakistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup and was the team’s highest run-scorer with 122 runs in four matches at an average of 40.66 and a strike-rate of 101.66.
Rizwan was the second-highest run-getter with 110 runs in four games, which included a top score of 53 not out, at an average of 36.66 and a strike-rate of 90.90.
Pakistan lost to the United States of America and India before bouncing back to defeat Canada and Ireland.
Even though they ended the group stage with a 2-2 record, it was not enough to get them through to the Super Eights.
Pakistan Squad for 2024 T20 World Cup:Â 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