“Leave Captaincy”: Pakistan Great’s Blunt Advice To Under-Fire Babar Azam

Two wins in three matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup2023 campaign, but Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is facing extreme critcism from some of his former teammates.

Shoaib Malik, one of the greats of Pakistan cricket, has once again adviced Babar to quit captaincy and focus only on his batting. Malik’s suggestion came in after Pakistan lost to arch-rivals India in the league stage of the World Cup on Saturday. Not just Malik, but some of the other former Pakistan cricketers and fans have also questioned Babar’s captaincy after the loss.

“Look, I will give you my honest opinion on this. I have already said this in previous interviews that Babar should leave captaincy, it is just my opinion but there’s a lot of homework behind it. Babar, as a player, can do wonders for himself as well as the team,” the former Pakistan skipper said on A-Sports.

“It is my personal opinion and that is not because we lost the game today (against India) or we lost by a big margin, no it (my opinion) is not built on that,” he said.

Malik feels Babar doesn’t think ‘out of the box’ as a captain which is a big problem with respect to his leadership skills. He recommended the name of Shaheen Shah Afridi as Pakistan’s skipper of Babar does decide to step down.

“I think that Babar, as a leader, doesn’t think out of the box. One shouldn’t mix his leadership with his batting skills as they both are different. He has been a captain for a long time now, but he hasn’t been able to improve himself,” the 41-year-old asserted.

“Shaheen Afridi should become captain in white ball cricket in case Babar Azam resigns. He has done an attacking captaincy for Lahore Qalandars,” he concluded.