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India's two-time World winner Gautam Gambhir tore into Pakistan captain Babar Azam, calling him out for his below-par captaincy in the ongoing T20 World Cup in Australia.
Blaming Babar Azam's poor selection calls for Pakistan's poor showing in the prestigious event, Gautam Gambhir joined the brigade of former cricketers who accused him of being “insecure”.
Gautam Gambhir also alleged that Babar Azam was a “selfish” cricketer who always thought about himself and not about the team.
“In my opinion, first, you think about your team instead of yourself; if nothing goes according to your plan, you should have sent Fakhar Zaman up the batting order. This is called selfishness; as a captain, it is easy to be selfish. It is easy for Babar and Rizwan to open the innings for Pakistan and create so many records. If you want to be a leader, you have to think about your team”, Gautam Gambhir said.
Earlier Pakistani greats, Waqar Younis, and Wasim Akram ripped Babar Azam, terming him “selfish” and “insecure”. The legendary pacers argued that Babar Azam may have become a great batsman but his captaincy was still a work in progress. The duo even questioned his reluctance to bat down instead of his usual opening position to provide the much-needed stability to Pakistan's vulnerable middle order.
Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram pointed out that to become a great leader Babar Azam needed to focus on how to improve his team's chances of winning and to attain that he must come out of his comfort zone. But he wasn't willing to do so, and that's why Pakistan was on the verge of exiting the T20 World Cup in Australia.
Article Continues Below“The easiest place to bat in T20s is opening. You have not let anyone else open in the last two years. I have discussed this with Misbah before, that's why don't you try something new? You have tried it out with bowling, but with batting, we have tried all the experiments with the middle order. But the openers have remained the same and they have batted 14-15 overs together,” Waqar Younis said in a conversation with a Pakistani television channel.
“Sometimes, as a captain and as a leader, you leave your spot and say, Haider, if it is not working out for you in the middle order, I will give you the easier spot (opening) and we never tried that out, and that is why we are suffering. And we also lose because of the way they score runs. To become No.1 and No. 2 (in T20I rankings) is not a big deal, the important thing is to win after scoring those runs,” Waqar Younis added.
“All of these things begin at the top. And at the top is your captain. If your captain plays for himself and is insecure. If your captain scores runs and lets other batters play at his position, you get to know that your captain is ready to sacrifice himself for you, this Babar has to learn,” Wasim Akram said.
“The difference between being a captain and the leader, well that's the difference,” Waqar Younis remarked while taking a subtle dig at Babar Azam.
“I have been through this by the way with Babar, at Karachi Kings, yes. In the team we had a couple of bad phases and I requested him once or twice nicely, that please come down at number 3, we’ll try something different. Let (Martin) Guptill bat at the top, seeing he is an opener. And he (Babar) said I would not go down, you ask Sharjeel to bat at 3, and he (Sharjeel) is a natural opener too. And these little things that the captain does, the team senses too,” Wasim Akram stated recounting his time with Babar Azam in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Even Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar hit out at Pakistan skipper Babar Azam for his bad selection calls in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
Sunil Gavaskar's harsh words came after the Men in Green lost their second successive match in the prestigious competition to Zimbabwe in Perth on Thursday, putting their chances of qualifying for the semifinals under serious threat.
Sunil Gavaskar noted that Babar Azam's poor selection choices are to be blamed for their disastrous campaign in the T20 World Cup.
Sunil Gavaskar opined that Babar Azam missed a trick by not including Mohammad Wasim Jr in the playing XI against India.
The 1983 World Cup winner compared Mohammad Wasim Jr to India all-rounder Hardik Pandya and emphasized that the Pakistan cricketer could hit lofty shots as well as move the ball around while bowling.
