‘Not necessary for a brilliant player to be an excellent skipper’- Former Pakistan captain raises questions about Babar Azam’s captaincy
Pakistan faced a heartbreaking loss in the 20-20 World Cup final at the hands of England on November 13th. Following back-to-back final losses in a major event, questions are being asked of Pakistan skipper Babar Azam as well. The right-hand batter had a disappointing individual performance at the World Cup wherein he scored 124 runs in 7 matches at an underwhelming average of 17.71.
While the majority of questions directed his way have been about his poor form with the bat, there have been some that have questioned his captaincy as well. Among them is former Pakistan captain Salman Butt. Butt has criticised Azam for not taking good in-game decisions in the 20-20 World Cup in critical moments.
“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. Butt has also suggested Azam to question himself and look inside for solutions.
“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.
Butt not impressed with Babar Azam’s bowling changes
Butt also opined on the usage of premier fast bowler Shaheen Afridi by Azam. The left-arm pacer was often asked to bowl two overs at the beginning and the rest two at the end of the innings. Butt suggested that Azam should have bowled Afridi a lot more in the beginning than he did.
“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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