The Pakistani cricket fans and former cricketers are disappointed with their cricket team after Babar Azam-led squad suffered a humiliating defeat against their arch-rivals, India. The match was played at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad and Pakistan didn’t even survive 50 overs as the whole team got out for 191 runs in 42.5 overs. In response, India chased the target in just 30.3 overs; skipper Rohit Sharma played a captain’s knock of 86 runs and helped his team in winning the match.
Though Babar Azam scored a fifty in that match yet he was slammed a lot for his captaincy and questions were raised on his leadership skills during a panel discussion which was attended by former Pakistani cricketers – Wasim Akram, Moin Khan, Shoaib Malik, etc.
Shoaib Malik even went on to the extent of saying that Babar Azam should quit captaincy and play as a batter. He said, “I gave an opinion in the past as well that Babar Azam should leave captaincy. This is my personal opinion. Babar does not think out of the box as a captain. He is doing captaincy but the improvement is not coming. He can do wonders for Pakistan as a player.”
Now this statement didn’t go well with another former Pak cricketer Mohammad Yousuf and he slammed Shoaib Malik for making such a statement when a big tournament is going on. He gave the example of World Cup winning skipper Imran Khan and also said that he was shocked that even Wasim Akram didn’t stop Shoaib Malik from saying this.
Mohammad Yousuf said, “During the World Cup, I don’t think anybody should talk about this. Secondly, Imran Khan captained in 1983 and 1987 and lost both times before winning on his third attempt in 1992. Any good player should be allowed to continue as a captain for a long time. He is the captain because he has the ability. He did not become the captain because he is related to the PCB chairman. He is a genuine skipper.”
Mohammad Yousuf certainly has a point, what do you say?
