'Babar Azam Should Question Himself if I am Able to Carry on And Deliver Results': Former Pakistan Captain

Former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt criticised Babar Azam’s captaincy skills in the recently concluded T20I World Cup. Pakistan suffered a five-wicket defeat in the final of the mega ICC event against England at Melbourne Cricket Ground. Despite reaching the final, Babar’s captaincy came under the scanners for his reserved approach on several occasions. He also had a disappointing tournament with the bat as he scored just one half-century in seven matches.

Babar finished the tournament with 124 runs in 7 matches with an underwhelming average of 17.71. He was criticised throughout the tournament for his reserved batting approach in the powerplay.

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Butt asserted that Babar made some wrong calls and suggested it’s not the case always when a brilliant player turns out to be a good captain too.

“It’s not necessary that if a player is brilliant, he will be an excellent skipper too. There were a lot of instances where decisions could have been taken differently but weren’t,” Butt said on a YouTube channel.

The former skipper said that Babar has to question himself now about continuing as captain in the shortest format,

“Babar being the best player of the team and the skipper, he should question himself if I am able to carry on and deliver results,” he added.

Pakistan had a bit of luck while reaching the final as Netherlands opened the doors of semifinal for them by beating South Africa in the Round of 12.

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Premier pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi sustained an injury during the final as he landed awkwardly while taking Harry Brook’s catch.

Butt suggested that Afridi didn’t look fully fit when in the initial stage of the tournament and said that Babar missed the trick by not using his over efficiently in the final.

“When Shaheen returned from injury, he did not look completely fit in the first couple of games. However, as the tournament progressed, he got better. He got his pace and swing back and started troubling the batsmen and contributed with wickets at the start. Talking about finals, the decision to change Shaheen after his couple of overs wasn’t the correct call, especially since his spells with the new ball is more lethal than with an old ball,” he added.

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