Rashid Latif: “The issue seems to be more about mental stress than technical performance, and it’s apparent that he is struggling to cope with a significant amount of mental pressure”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Rashid Latif has attributed Babar Azam’s struggles with the bat to “mental stress”.
His comments come after Azam was dropped for the second and third Tests against England.
The 29-year-old has been out of form for some time and only managed to make scores of 30 and 5 in the first Test against England in Multan, which the men in green lost by an innings and 47 runs.
With Azam also having stepped down as limited overs captain at the beginning of October, Latif pointed out that he has to abandon the notion of becoming skipper again and simply focus on getting back in the right mindset and scoring runs.
“Mental problems seem more likely. We need to remember that he was removed forcefully as captain. When the mind is not functioning correctly, it affects the nerves as well. You try to play hard on every ball. He should let go of the idea of being a captain and focus on freeing himself from mental pressure. The issue seems to be more about mental stress than technical performance, and it’s apparent that he is struggling to cope with a significant amount of mental pressure,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Prior to the England series, Azam featured in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh and mustered 64 runs at an average of 16.
He then played for the Stallions in the Champions One-Day Cup, which was a 50-over tournament held in Faisalabad.
In four games, he amassed 230 runs, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 76.66.
The second Test between Pakistan and England will begin on October 15 in Multan.
Pakistan Squad for 2nd and 3rd Tests against England:Â Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Mehran Mumtaz, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Hurraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Zahid Mahmood.