Pakistan cricket team captain Mohammad Rizwan has blamed luck for Babar Azam’s poor form with the bat. The former Pakistan skipper is struggling to score runs and if that wasn’t enough, he is now promoted to the opener’s position. Rizwan backed Babar to come out on top ahead of the Champions Trophy.
“Luck” evading “technically solid” Babar Azam: Rizwan
Speaking to reporters ahead of the Tri-Nation series final against New Zealand, Rizwan explained the logic behind promoting Babar as opener. The keeper-batter explained that the team preferred to deploy their most technically solid star at the top instead of throwing someone unversed in the deep end. He admitted that Sai Ayub’s absence had forced Pakistan to take the measure, adding that Azam was able to cope with seam and swing effectively.
“His (Ayub’s) absence created a huge disturbance, and we went for the safety of Babar Azam, who’s our best batter. At the top, if the ball swings, he can control it. When Abdullah Shafique got out early in South Africa, Babar had to deal with the new ball anyway. He was coping with the seam and swing and enabling us to attack at the end. So we thought why not go for our most technically solid player to open, rather than throwing someone else in at the deep end,” Rizwan explained.
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Further, Rizwan claimed that Babar had made such a name for himself that he was expected to score a hundred in every match. The Pakistan skipper pointed out that Azam provided the team with handy knocks despite being unable to convert starts into big scores.
“It’s not as if he is doing something drastically different, but he is still getting out. Luck has evaded him. I am confident he’ll come out of it,” he added.
In his last two innings, Babar has only managed to score 10 and 23. His last century came in 2023 following which he has been pretty much out-of-form.
