NEW DELHI: Amid Pakistan’s group-stage exit from the ongoing World Cup, Babar Azam and his leadership skills continue to be the hot topic of discussion in the neighbouring country.
As Pakistan crashed out of the tournament after suffering 5 defeats — their most losses ever in a single edition of a World Cup — Babar has been facing backlash from fans and former cricketing stars.
Shahid Afridi, who has been critical of Babar throughout the tournament, on Monday said that the 29-year-old hasn’t shown improvement over his 3-4 years of reign as captain.
Talking about his poor leadership skills, Afridi said that Babar has been getting support from everyone but continues to make a lot of mistakes.
“I am a big fan of Babar and so are many others. People criticized me for criticizing Babar’s captaincy (aap Babar ki kaptani ke piche pade hain). Babar has always been like a younger brother to me. I wanted Babar to be on the list of top captains. He has been captaining for 3-4 years. During this period, there was never a sword hanging over his captaincy. We all supported him. We thought in 3-4 years his grooming would make him better. He would be able to prove himself as a captain and a leader but that hasn’t happened. We have seen a lot of mistakes. Leader has to be strong. He has to take everyone along with him. A leader does not have one or two players. He has 7-8 performers, who take them together forward,” said Afridi.
With the bat as well, Babar had a below-par outing as he scored a mere 320 runs in the 9 games that included 4 fifties and no hundred.
Along with Babar, the Pakistan Cricket Board too has been facing severe criticism over their administration failures.
Pakistan finished fifth at the World Cup in the group stage as India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand advanced into the semis.