Veteran Pakistan’s all-rounder Shoaib Malik wants Babar Azam to step down from captaincy after Pakistan’s heartbreaking loss against India by six runs. In his interaction with Ten Sports, Malik said that Babar Azam should be removed as the skipper and the core of Pakistan’s T-20 side should be changed.
Malik, who has not retired from the shortest format of the game and is still very active in franchise cricket, feels that Babar Azam should be sacked as the skipper of the side as his performance as a batter has gone down.
Pakistan’s batting failed miserably in the match against India, as they saw a tragic batting collapse in the second inning in their chase of 120 runs, losing the match by 6 runs.
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Shoaib Malik said, “I’ve been pleading with you to step down from captaincy for a while. You are a class player, and you can only demonstrate this to your classmates when you have no other obligations. It will benefit Babar if he refrains from taking on the captaincy role.”
Shoaib Malik further criticized Babar Azam for playing the wrong innings and asked Babar when his brain would kick in tough situations.
Malik said, “People keep talking about Babar and Rizwan’s strike rates, so you brought in Saim Ayub. Yesterday, it was a 120 chase. Why were you trying to improve your strike rate yesterday? The platform was set in every way. If, as a leader and a batter, your brain does kick in in these sorts of situations, when will it? I am forced to say today that the core of this team, in the T20I format, I think we have to stop backing them.”
Pakistan is now on the verge of elimination after losing both their matches against the USA and India. They will be up against Canada on June 11.
