Once a cricketer for India himself, Virender Sehwag has bashed Pakistan’s cricketer Babar Azam regarding his current in and outside cricket and ‘advised’ him to focus on fitness. The Government of Pakistan’s selection brought shock waves when they excluded well-known batsman and former captain of the national cricket team Babar Azam from the final two Tests of the series against the English. In order to level the series, Babar’s position was given to Kamran Ghulam who made his debut in Test cricket for Pakistan. This all-rounder was not spared by some groups of fans before the Test and even during the Test he came under heavy criticism.
Nevertheless, the 29-year-old did everything within him to ensure that he kept Britain’s limited and potent bowlers at bay, for the most part, enabling Pakistan to remain actively engaged. Batsman flourished with a number of big hits a century finding the boundary after every ball to complete his innings with 118 runs from 124 balls faced.
While speaking on the YouTube channel of former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar, Sehwag remarked, “It is time for Babar to participate in the domestic game and after a period of time he should return to the international platform , but this time he should be with more strength mentally”.
“In my opinion, Babar Azam should take some time off international cricket and play domestic cricket. This is so that he can improve on his physical fitness, spend quality time with his loved ones and make an international cricket comeback in a fit body and a stronger head,” said Sehwag.
The former Indian cricketer further said that he is more affected in the mental aspect of the game. The 46-year-old also asked Babar to work on his psychology.
“Babar’s stature has been on the decline lately and the fact that he has stepped down from the captaincy implies that he is suffering more psychologically than technically which is good. He has to hold up mentally. He is a good player, and good players like him come back strong,” he stated.
As for Ghulam’s innings, it was the right way to start the Test for Pakistan, but it was more of Noman Ali and Sajid Khan who dictated the outcome with their spin.
The pair bowled all twenty wickets in the second Test returning England in total confusion. While Sajid was the star of the first inning with figures of 7/111, the star of the second inning was Noman with astonishing 8/46 in return.
Pakistan managed to level the series at 1-1 with a comprehensive 125 runs victory that saw the third and final decider match taken to Rawalpindi on 24 th October.
