Pakistan captain Babar Azam is critics’ favourite target at the moment. With his team losing the first two matches of the T20 World Cup 2024, to the USA and India respectively, Babar’s been the focal point of criticism coming from former cricketers, fans, and pundits. Even Ahmed Shehzad, an active Pakistani cricketer, tore into Babar and shredded his reputation on a television channel in Pakistan. Shehzad shed light on Babar’s poor statistics in big competitions and suggested that the Pakistan skipper averages only 27 in T20I cricket when it comes to big events.
In a fiery rant on live television, Shehzad said that Pakistan have been losing to mediocre sides under Babar’s captaincy, and even also been losing to top teams’ B, C and D squads.
“Jab se Babar Azam captain hain, hum bohot mediocre, sorry for using this word, teams se haar rahe hain (ever since Babar became captain, we have been losing to mediocre teams),” said.
Ahmed Shehzad on a TV show, in a video that has gone viral. “The kind of progress that was going on, these things were on the cards and bound to happen some day.”
Shehzad feels Pakistan’s veteran players should’ve stepped up and taken responsibility of the team’s chase of 120 runs against India but they failed to do so.
“There are players who are taking care of the team for the last 4-5 years, who take all the decisions. So wasn’t it their duty to take the responsibility of ensuring that the team chases down 120 to win such an important match against India?” Shehzad asked.
“Aapne B, C, D teams ke khilaaf perform kar ke logon ko hallucinate kiya hai aur pagal banaya hai (you guys have performed against B, C, D teams and fooled the people),” Shehzad accused the team and further said: “Your salaries were hiked, PCB paid you to evolve yourself and your cricket…”
The discarded Pakistani batter claimed that 1400 of Babar’s runs in T20Is have come in the losing cause, which puts him at No. 3 spot in such a list.
“Your (Babar) scores in big competitions…your average is 27 and strike rate is 112. And 1400 of your runs have come in a losing cause, which is at No. 3 in the world in that list. So these stats are of which king, tell me that? What should I do with this king who can’t win us the match?” said Shehzad.
To conclude, Shehzad alleged that Babar got his friends into the team and fooled the entire public.
“You have fooled the entire public. Aap apne dosto ke saath team bana rahe hain, dosto ko team ke andar rakh rahe hain (you are making a team with your friends, keeping your friends in the team),” said Shehzad.
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