Former Pakistan star opens up on Babar Azam's 'weak' captaincy in T20 World Cup 2024
Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif criticised skipper Babar Azam's leadership for the Men in Green's poor showing in the West Indies and the United States at the recently concluded T20 World Cup in 2024. The cricketer turned analyst feels that the 29-year-old cricketer made the "biggest mistake" of his career and says he shouldn't have taken on the leadership for the second term.
Meanwhile, the Green Army couldn't manage to advance to the Super 8s of the T20 World Cup 2024 following defeats in their first two group-stage matches against the USA and eventual champions Rohit Sharma led-India. Although the Men in Green won their next two matches, the Babar Azam-led team failed to finish in the top two in Group A.
The swashbuckling batter also came under fire after his poor batting performance in the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2024. The stylish right-handed batter had amassed 122 runs with a terrible strike rate of 101.67 and an average of 40.66. Notably, Green Army lost in the group stage for the first time since 2014 in T20 World Cup history.
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Babar Azam shouldn't have been removed as captain after the ODI World Cup in India: Rashid Latif
In the same vein, the 55-year-old cricket legend states that Babar Azam's second stint as captain should never have taken place, which makes him weak. The former hard-hitting batter stated that this is the biggest blunder that may hurt Babar Azam in the future.
"Babar Azam shouldn't have been removed as captain after the ODI World Cup in India. Shaheen came in to replace him. But Babar's second tenure as captain was weak. Babar looked weak. This is not the way team selection should be done," Rashid Latif said.
Rashid Latif tells me "Babar Azam's biggest mistake was to accept the captaincy again. If he continues as captain, that will be an even bigger mistake by him" #Cricket pic.twitter.com/hsy9SC28tc
— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) July 2, 2024
However, after Pakistan's disappointing showing in the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, Babar Azam went on to resign as captain of all formats. But the top-order batter was named the white-ball cricket skipper again by PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi. Left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi was removed after captaining the side in just one T20I series.
"Babar didn't fight (in the T20 World Cup). His biggest mistake was accepting the captaincy again. If he continues as captain, it will be an even bigger mistake. He is drifting away from his game," he added further.
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Meanwhile, the 29-year-old batter failed to win any major trophies, including the Asia Cup and World Cups (ODIs and T20Is). Many times, he was on the brink of winning trophies. Babar Azam and Co. faced defeat in the semi-finals of the 2021 T20 World Cup held in Dubai, while they ended up being the first runner-up in the Asia Cup 2022 and the 2022 T20 World Cup.
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