The 2023 ODI World Cup wasn’t a happy tournament for Pakistan as they were eliminated in the league stage itself. With four wins and five defeats from 9 matches, the former champions finished fifth on the points table and failed to qualify for the knockouts.
It didn’t help their cause that star batter Babar Azam wasn’t at his best either. He managed 320 runs from 9 matches with four half-centuries while averaging 40.
Before the tournament got underway, India legend Gautam Gambhir had predicted Babar to have a memorable outing and expected him to score at least 3-4 centuries.
However, it wasn’t the case.
Now, Gambhir, winner of two world cups, has explained how the pressure of captaincy weighed heavily on the shoulders of Babar who eventually stepped down from the role across formats following Pakistan’s exit from the tournament.
The former India opener thinks that Babar will now return a different player since being relieved from the burden of captaincy.
“You’ll see the best of Babar Azam now,” Gambhir said on Sportskeeda. “You will see a completely different Babar Azam. Before the World Cup, I picked Babar as the batter of the tournament. But the pressure of captaincy, when your team isn’t doing well you can imagine the pressure.”
Gambhir further added that Babar has another good 10 years ahead of him since the pressure of captaincy won’t impact his performances anymore.
“You will now see the actual Babar Azam. I don’t know what his record is but now you will see his actual ability till the time he continues playing. Babar doesn’t have to prove anything. Babar has the quality to become the best batter Pakistan has ever produced. He’s just 27-28 and will have another 10 years because of no pressure of captaincy,” he said.
Pakistan are currently in Australia for a three-match Test series, their first international assignment post the world cup. They started the tour with a four-day warm-up match against a Prime Minister’s XI which ended in a draw.
The first Test starts from December 14 in Perth.
Comments
0 comment