The Pakistani cricket team seems to be in the transformation stage in the past 2 years under the leadership of Babar Azam. Whether it’s a test match or T20, the team’s performance has been commendable lately. However, their recent unvictorious series against New Zealand has allowed critics to bombard the captain with questions.
Many reporters hurled doubts about the team’s chances and Babar’s captaincy for upcoming tournaments. The cool captain replied that he doesn’t have to justify to anyone about his captaincy or batting.
Babar Azam Test Captaincy Record
Babar took the reign of the Pakistani test team about 2 years ago. He led the side in 18 matches, registering 8 wins and 6 losses for his team. Babar Azam has been leading the team for only 2 years. With a victory percentage of 44.40 as a captain, the performance has been much better than his earlier counterparts. All these stats speak in favour of this young captain.
As the Pakistani team’s performance keeps getting better, the expectations of fans and experts have skyrocketed. So, even a small setback becomes undesirable. Although the Pakistanis didn’t win the home series against the Kiwi’s, they didn’t lose it either. Yet, questions from reporters and other critics loom large. Most of them assume a draw series as an underperformance of the team. Reporters believe that the team should have won the series at home.
This is why a draw series was considered a poor performance for the team. However, Babar Azam remained undeterred by questions regarding his captaincy and the team’s performance. Speaking to reporters ahead of the one-day international series against the Kiwi, the captain shut down a reporter when asked whether he plans to step down as the test captain due to his poor record at the home ground since last year.
Babar Azam News: His Strong Response to Reporters and Critics
Babar Azam said that they’ve had an ODI series now and the test series is over. So, he would entertain only questions regarding the ODI series. Reporters asked Babar again about his captaincy following an undesirable series against the Kiwis. The skipper replied that he doesn’t need to justify to anyone about his performance or captaincy. He knows what he is doing and is focussed on better performance for his team. The captain also added that players are thinking about a tough ODI series against New Zealand.
According to Babar Azam, the team has performed well in ODI matches. They would like to continue with the winning momentum against the Kiwis, even though New Zealand is a strong competitor and beating them wouldn’t be a piece of cake. Babar further added that he had no issues with the chief selected Shahid Afridi. According to him, both selectors and the players were on the same page. So, the rumours of conflicts are baseless.
Bottom Line
Despite a winless series against the Kiwis, Babar Azam looks confident about the upcoming ODI series against New Zealand. Not just that, he is optimistic about his team’s chances in the series as well as the upcoming ICC World Cup 2023. It would be interesting to see how Babar transforms his assertions into reality.
