The man doesn’t know where his fielders should be during a death over, the man’s facepalm moment during a crucial stage of the match was caught on camera (and I feel that is where we exactly lost the match) and the man lost it despite being so close to victory that everyone had to double-check but all hail King Babar. Babar Azam cannot be criticized or even asked to let someone else lead the team and enjoy his cricket as a top batter or even let his star players rest so that they can give their 100-percent when needed, none can do it, or he will be canceled, SOCHNA BHI MANA HAI, All Hail King Babar.
He didn’t even interrupt his star-pacer Shaheen Afridi when he conceded three sixes off three balls in T20 World Cup semi-final 2021 where Pakistan were among favorites to win the title. Babar Azam lost the Asia Cup 2022 final to an out-of-form Sri Lanka, Babar Azam himself couldn’t score much in the final but one cannot criticize him.
Fast forward to T20 World Cup 2022 game against India, the man had everything under control as all his bowlers had performed but then came Virat Kohli with all his energy and expertise.
It was the first true test of Babar Azam’s captaincy but he FAILED as India which required 48 off 18- a seemingly impossible target to achieve that too in a high-voltage World Cup match- managed to pull it off with Virat Kohli dominating the death-overs.
From the lush-green outfield of MCG to millions of TV sets around the world, Virat Kohli was everywhere but where was Babar Azam all this time? where was he?. Nowhere actually
Babar Azam had no clue but then we were told that Pakistan hadn’t come that close if it was not for Bobby’s captaincy. The whole nation is indebted to King Babar for taking command of an otherwise ‘failing’ Pakistan Cricket team (even this claim cannot be questioned).
We were reminded that Pakistan was on top of the game till Kohli walked in (none knows why Kohli only fires against Pakistan and not against any other top international side).
Then we somehow reached the final of the T20 World Cup 2022 (thanks to Netherlands) and none thought that Pakistan will lose it from here but then again Babar Azam didn’t know who should open the innings, who should be his No.3 and No.4 batters in a final of one of the top ICC events. The team literally had four openers one after another in the batting lineup.
We all had to wait for a brilliant Naseem Shah and a super-enthusiastic Haris Rauf to save the day, which they couldn’t because the batters only scored 137. We were again told that it is not only Babar’s job to bat and the same batting lineup wouldn’t have even reached the final of the World Cup if there were no Babar Azam leading them, so SOCHNA BHI MANA HAI.
But today, after years as the only true king of Pakistan Cricket, where does he stand as a captain?
Babar Azam announces his Playing XI a day before match for reasons best known to him, Babar takes Nawaz instead of Faheem Ashraf against India on September 2 and lets Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan settle on the crease after his pacers had already taken all key wickets and India were at a time 66/4. For Babar took Nawaz on a wicket he shouldn’t have so now Nawaz should bowl his quota of overs and get smashed all around the ground for no fault of his own and let India score 266 and rain comes to save us.
Then comes the fateful day when nothing worked for Pakistan and India totally dominated the DAY 1 and DAY 2 of an ODI everyone was desperately waiting to see, they scored 356 after Babar Azam invited them to bat on a surface no captain would have and then the team gets overwhelmed one more time by Virat Kohli and even lets KL Rahul perform. Hopes were high that Pakistan’s batting will fire too on this pitch but other than the usual suspect (Fakhar Zaman), even Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq and Iftikhar Ahmed too couldn’t do anything to even take Pakistan to a respectable total, but Babar Azam can’t be blamed as Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah got injured (none knows who kept them busy the whole time and even took them against minnows like Nepal and Afghanistan) and the conditions just changed and Kuldeep Yadav just regained his form the day Pakistan came to bat and so on and so forth. SOCHNA BHI MANA HAI.
Asia Cup’s format keeps us in the run for the final and we only have to beat Sri Lanka. Babar again doesn’t perform and like always, Rizwan comes to the rescue, Iftikhar Ahmed lights up the Colombo stadium with batting heroics and Pakistan scores a defendable 252.
Babar Azam now has no genuine spinner and other than Shaheen Afridi, he has no experienced pacer for he even made them play against Nepal and Afghanistan but still, Zaman Khan does his job well, Iftikhar Ahmed does with the ball what Bobby Bhai’s second-in-command Shadab Khan would have done but Pakistan still lose after coming close to victory.
Who should we blame now?
We remember how Babar Azam broke the Indian jinx at T20 World Cup 2021, we remember he made us the number 1 ODI team, we remember all his heroics but is he fit to remain Pakistan’s all-format captain?
What is stopping him from giving a finishing touch to all his achievements at the big stage, why he cannot win or perform in crucial matches? why he cannot just give up captaincy and prove us all wrong that his lack of game awareness or preferring friends and favourites over talented cricketers is not the problem, in fact it is just an accusation? why?
I think I should just stop here for SOCHNA BHI MANA HAI, All HAIL THE KING!!!
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of ARYNews or its management.
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