Babar reached his half century in 81 balls which was his fifth slowest in ODIs.
Former RCB Emerging Player award winner Shreevats Goswami mocked Babar Azam for his slow knock in the Champions Trophy 2025 opener against New Zealand.
Shreevats Goswami won the Emerging Player award in the first season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Chasing a target of 321 Pakistan struggled from the start as Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel could not provide the momentum needed. The team managed only 22 runs in the powerplay and also lost the early wickets of Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan putting them under even more pressure.
As the required run rate increased beyond seven Babar found it difficult to rotate the strike taking 81 balls to reach his half century which was his fifth slowest in ODIs. He tried to accelerate later scoring 14 runs off 8 balls including a six. However while attempting another big shot against New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner he mistimed it and got out for a slow 64 off 90 balls hitting only six boundaries.
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Former RCB player Shreevats Goswami took a dig at Babar Azam’s slow innings by posting a sarcastic tweet on X. He mocked Babar for batting too cautiously in an ODI run chase, suggesting that his approach was more suited for a Test match rather than a limited-overs game.
“Beautiful defence by babar Azam trying to get through the new ball till lunch, ” Goswami said.
Ravichandran Ashwin compared Babar Azam’s slow innings to the “Tortoise and Rabbit” story, highlighting the contrast between his cautious approach and Salman Ali Agha’s quickfire 42 off 28 balls. Ashwin’s tweet implied that Babar’s slow batting hurt Pakistan’s momentum.
Babar’s journey to 50 coupled with Salman Ali Agha’s batting has to be the best depiction of “ The Tortoise and Rabbit story, ” Ashwin said.
Pakistan lost the match by 60 runs, and their next game against India on February 23 in Dubai could be a do or die clash for them.
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