Pakistan captain Babar Azam is the most important player in the team for many reasons. He is probably the best batter in Pakistan’s cricket fraternity and one of the best in the world at the moment. Babar has also been decent in his captaincy tenure so far. But there are always two aspects of anything in life and so has Babar Azam’s captaincy.
While many are heard singing praise for the Pakistan captain, the criticism has now started coming after two back-to-back losses for Pakistan at the T20 World Cup. Pakistan lost their first two games to India and Zimbabwe respectively, almost putting an end to their qualification chances for the semifinals. The loss to Zimbabwe did not sit too well with former Pakistani cricketers and Wasim Akram is also among them.
The former speedster has raised questions about the team’s efforts and has also pointed a finger at Babar Azam. Akram made a shocking claim about the Pakistan captain saying he is selfish and insecure. Akram, who has worked with Babar Azam at Karachi Kings, revealed that the player plays for himself and is insecure. The former Pakistan pacer recalled a conversation with Azam to back his claim.
Akram said that when Karachi Kings were not doing good in one of the seasons, he asked Azam to sacrifice his opening slot and give it to Martin Guptill but he refused. “I have been through this by the way with Babar, at Karachi Kings. In the team we had a couple of bad phases and I requested him once or twice nicely, that please come down at number 3, we’ll try something different,” Wasim Akram said on A Sports show – The Pavillion.
“Let (Martin) Guptill bat at the top, seeing he is an opener. And he (Babar) said I would not go down, you ask Sharjeel to bat at 3, and he (Sharjeel) is a natural opener too. And these little things that the captain does, the team senses too,” he added.
“All of these things begin at the top. And at the top is your captain. If your captain plays for himself and is insecure. If your captain scores runs and lets other batters play at his position, you get to know that your captain is ready to sacrifice himself for you, this Babar has to learn,” Wasim said.