Wasim Akram: “I believe that stepping down from captaincy will significantly improve Babar Azam’s performance”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan left-arm seamer Wasim Akram expects to see a significant improvement in Babar Azam’s batting following his decision to resign as limited overs captain.
Azam, who stepped down from the role at the beginning of October, has been under immense pressure due to his leadership skills and inability to score runs regularly.
Now that he is free from the captaincy, Wasim is hoping it results in the 30-year-old enjoying great success with the bat.
“This would not have been an easy decision, but we should respect it. I stand with Babar. He should enjoy his cricket. With reduced pressure, he will be able to focus more on his batting,” the Sultan of Swing was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“I believe that stepping down from captaincy will significantly improve Babar Azam’s performance. He must have experienced unnecessary stress due to captaincy, and now he can fully concentrate on his game, win a few matches for Pakistan, and I am confident he will do just that.”
Azam recently featured in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh and mustered 64 runs at an average of 16.
He then represented the Stallions in the Champions One-Day Cup, which was a domestic 50-over competition that took place in Faisalabad.
In four games, he amassed 230 runs, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 76.66.
Afterwards, Azam took part in the first Test against England and made scores of 30 and 5.
The Lahore native was removed from the squad for the second Test, which Pakistan won by 152 runs, and wasn’t in the playing XI for the third Test either, which started on October 24 in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan Squad for 2nd and 3rd Tests against England: 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.
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