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Babar Azam - T20I Captaincy Watch

Babar: "Rizwan and Nawaz partnership was the turning point. I had a hunch Nawaz would be key against legspinners (about his promotion)."

Match-winning decision from the captain?
 
Its very easy to criticize the wrongs without appreciating the rights. Yes hes made some mistakes but he is growing in the role I fell, Rohit didnt use the part timers as well and it cost india the match imagine if babar did this? sending nawaz early is something very few people would have done but he did and it certainly won us the match...lets try to look at the positives for once instead of criticizing everything
 
Did Babar didn't put enough faith in our Pacers today?

I think he got defensive just after two overs , the way Hasnain has bowled his first over it , the pace and bounce and away movement he got in his first over he should have bowled 3 overs on the trott without concerning for runs , it would have been impossible for India to hit him out for 10+ RPO with such pace , bounce and outswing without losing 2 or 3 quick wickets, but sadly the Babar got scared and removed him just after one over , these little aggressive tactics makes you a better and active captain. Other thing he misses out that he didn't told any pacer to bowl yorkers enough. That's the other thing we missed out otherwise we could have restricted India to 150/160 today.

Your thoughts?
 
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Brilliant decision to promote Nawaz; would've liked an over from one of the part time spinners as our pacers were getting smashed.

However it's now Babar's second win over India as Pakistan captain and is gaining valuable experience in handling these high pressure situations.
 
no, was an absolute road of a track, hasnain got one to lift awkwardly, besides that there was nothing in the pitch for the pacers. nawaz and shadab got Pakistan back in the game, which allowed the seamers to complete their overs against the lower order batsman.
 
It was a flat track. Smacking 145-150kph isnt as easy. Bowl such deliveries in Australia or SA and the batsmen would be jumping around.

Babar infact placed too much fait in the pacers. He should had removed his pacers by third over and start with a spinner. I was critisizing Babar for not giving Iftikhar or Khushdil the ball. The pacers shouldn'y had bowled there full qouta.

The reason why the target was 182(should had been 170ish if fakhar didnt mess up), waas because of Shadab and Nawaz. Pace off the bowling controlled it here. Thus, one of the part tiemrs could had controlled the run flows more.
 
Markhor said:
Brilliant decision to promote Nawaz; would've liked an over from one of the part time spinners as our pacers were getting smashed.

However it's now Babar's second win over India as Pakistan captain and is gaining valuable experience in handling these high pressure situations.
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Two wins against India seems an alien concept
 
We came back in the game thanks to our spinners.

Shadab and Nawaz choked India in the middle overs, after our 150kph guys were going at 10-12 an over.

Nothing problematic with Babar's captaincy.
 
Failing with the bat. Needs to do less diplomacy with India, leave that to politicians and stop sucking up to Virat. It's embarrassing
 
Hasnain was easily the most threatening bowler today but Babar didn't utilize him properly today, should have bowled 3 overs on the trott and it would have been impossible for India to hit him out without losing wickets
 
Nah, this wasn't a pacers pitch.

Excellence of Shadab and Nawaz pulled us back in. Rauf was much better in his 2nd spell and unlucky as well. Cramped kohli by sheer pace.
 
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Muhammad Saad said:
Hasnain was easily the most threatening bowler today but Babar didn't utilize him properly today, should have bowled 3 overs on the trott and it would have been impossible for India to hit him out without losing wickets
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We were getting smoked at that point. Risk was too great.

Hasnain anyway bowled well today. He has got all his pace but with a smoother action.
 
The pacers need to learn how to bowl on such wickets against class players. These pitches are the norm in T20 games and are a broadcasters dream.
 
Savak said:
The pacers need to learn how to bowl on such wickets against class players. These pitches are the norm in T20 games and are a broadcasters dream.
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Well they will learn. They are very young and inexperienced. Atleast they all have potential and great raw ingredients.
 
Hasnain should have opened the bowling actually. Naseem doesn't swing the ball that much, although bowls with a lot of heart

Hasnain generates more swing, and with two slips in the first over could have troubled openers. Swing diminishes after two overs, so thereafter it wouldn't have mattered.
 
Major said:
It was a flat track. Smacking 145-150kph isnt as easy. Bowl such deliveries in Australia or SA and the batsmen would be jumping around.

Babar infact placed too much fait in the pacers. He should had removed his pacers by third over and start with a spinner. I was critisizing Babar for not giving Iftikhar or Khushdil the ball. The pacers shouldn'y had bowled there full qouta.

The reason why the target was 182(should had been 170ish if fakhar didnt mess up), waas because of Shadab and Nawaz. Pace off the bowling controlled it here. Thus, one of the part tiemrs could had controlled the run flows more.
Click to expand...

Khushdil especially. Nawaz was very economical and Khushdil could have been a good bet
 
Babar used the pacers too much apart from hasnain the other pacers were rubbish but the pitch was very flat and ball flew off the bat so really can't blame them, naseem is young and haris rauf is just brainless.


Instead of bowling naseem he could have give khusdil or ifthikar a over or 2 because they key to this pitch was taking the pace off and both nawaz and shadab choked up the indian run rate and got key wickets .
 
KyoOne said:
Hasnain should have opened the bowling actually. Naseem doesn't swing the ball that much, although bowls with a lot of heart

Hasnain generates more swing, and with two slips in the first over could have troubled openers. Swing diminishes after two overs, so thereafter it wouldn't have mattered.
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Naseem swings it both ways. There just was no movement today. That's what the conditions were. Happens.
 
Doing very well. Has improved a lot as a captain in last one year. Still a lot of room for improvement.
 
Whoever made the call to promote Nawaz to number 4 today deserves a lot of credit.

Great call.
 
Saj said:
Whoever made the call to promote Nawaz to number 4 today deserves a lot of credit.

Great call.
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It has to be Saqlain or Yousaf. Babar looks like someone who goes by pre-ordained formulas. Maybe Shadab suggested it.
 
Saj said:
Whoever made the call to promote Nawaz to number 4 today deserves a lot of credit.

Great call.
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See this is what real coaching and leadership is about. Babar is becoming better and better every single day and players are relaxed and enjoying themselves with the current management. Toxic days of Misbah-Waqar-Azhar are part of history, Alhamdulillah.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wasim Akram "Babar has to learn quickly that when the opposition is 5 wickets down, get your main bowlers on. Don't worry about the last 2 overs" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SLvPAK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SLvPAK</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AsiaCup2022Final?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AsiaCup2022Final</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/SajSadiqCricket/status/1569008422535970816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
My concern regarding his captaincy in T20Is is that he keeps making the same defensive mistakes and allowing the opposition to get back into the match very easily.
 
Kamran Akmal:

"During a T20I in Faisalabad when Babar was walking out for the toss, I got to know that he is being made captain. That is when I told him... 'I don't think now is the right time for you to become captain. Give your best performances in the next 2-3 years. The batting line-up is depended on you. Reach Virat Kohli's level first, Steve Smith's level. By then, you would have scored 35-40 centuries and enjoy captaincy. The moment Sarfaraz leaves, you will be next in line. But now is the right time. I told him back in the day but it was his decision. Those who were close to him, must have spoken to him and advised him to take up captaincy"

"I had also told him to only concentrate on his batting. He was scoring runs and would have continued to do so. The flow was beautiful. People enjoyed watching him bat. With captaincy, there will be pressure, which will affect his batting, his approach. And somewhere, that is visible now. But at the same time removing him as captain right now would be a big blunder on the part of the team management. Pakistan cricket will go back"

"But now he has matured. It's been 2-3 years since he has been captaining, but it still should have been better. The way he captained in the final of the Asia Cup final, he has done better than that in the past. He has utilised his bowlers - like Nawaz - really well. But when you don't have form, you can make a few changes at the top. Perhaps push Rizwan down to 3, bat there yourself. Make Fakhar open, maybe he can come back to form. So there are the decisions a captain should take."
 
MenInG said:
Kamran Akmal:

"During a T20I in Faisalabad when Babar was walking out for the toss, I got to know that he is being made captain. That is when I told him... 'I don't think now is the right time for you to become captain. Give your best performances in the next 2-3 years. The batting line-up is depended on you. Reach Virat Kohli's level first, Steve Smith's level. By then, you would have scored 35-40 centuries and enjoy captaincy. The moment Sarfaraz leaves, you will be next in line. But now is the right time. I told him back in the day but it was his decision. Those who were close to him, must have spoken to him and advised him to take up captaincy"

"I had also told him to only concentrate on his batting. He was scoring runs and would have continued to do so. The flow was beautiful. People enjoyed watching him bat. With captaincy, there will be pressure, which will affect his batting, his approach. And somewhere, that is visible now. But at the same time removing him as captain right now would be a big blunder on the part of the team management. Pakistan cricket will go back"

"But now he has matured. It's been 2-3 years since he has been captaining, but it still should have been better. The way he captained in the final of the Asia Cup final, he has done better than that in the past. He has utilised his bowlers - like Nawaz - really well. But when you don't have form, you can make a few changes at the top. Perhaps push Rizwan down to 3, bat there yourself. Make Fakhar open, maybe he can come back to form. So there are the decisions a captain should take."
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Fairly sensible comments. Hard to disagree with anything he’s said here. Removing Babar as captain would definitely set Pakistan back, if not on the field, but definitely in the dressing room. Right now there’s a consensus among the players, removing Babar would create an opening that might cause tension. You don’t wanna be in a situation like India where Kohli’s out as captain and now everyone from Pant to Pandya to Rahul thinks they’re the next captain and if affects team cohesion. And even then, they at least had Rohit to shoulder the captaincy in the interim. We don’t have anyone like that atm.
 
Poor captaincy again from Babar. Doesn't seem to trust his part timers
 
Another bad day at the office as skipper for Babar.

They looked so flat in the field.

Lethargic, clueless.
 
Seems like notebook captain no imagination or out of the box thinking one trick bowling changes and routine field placings lack of homework is evident
 
I think He should step down from captaincy after T20 world cup otherwise his batting performance will go down.
 
Possibly the worst T20I captain I've ever seen. No tactical nous, no leadership qualities and doesn't lead by example when it comes to taking responsibility for accelerating when he's batting.

That feat would've belonged to Misbah but in this format he only captained in 8 matches for Pakistan.
 
Has been poor as captain. Always repeating the same formula and expecting the same results.

Need someone who can think outside the box.
 
cricenjoyer said:
Has been poor as captain. Always repeating the same formula and expecting the same results.

Need someone who can think outside the box.
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Even a team like India played Rohit at no.4 in the T20 World Cup to avoid the early in swing of Trent Boult.

They knew they had a serious issue and they did what they could to avoid it
 
Babar goes with the same formula in every match. Doesn't go out of the box or take any any extra ordinary decision
 
I don't know if anyone else felt the same. But it's pathetic that Babar took Dahani off straight after he bowled a 2 wicket over. Thats where the momentum shifted, as Duckett is known as a fine player of spin.
 
Moeen has been two steps ahead of Babar in this series so far. However, Moeen has honed his craft by learning from the likes of Morgan and Dhoni.

Babar only got a chance to play with Misbah during the tail-end of the great man's career and ever since, he's been playing under Sarfaraz or Azhar Ali. Babar needs better teachers but regardless, I think he will improve as he gets older.
 
Once again flat in the field and lacking creativity or ideas.

Seems to be a recurring pattern nowadays.
 
Pakistan is wasting time by continuously persisting with a guy who has had enough time on the job and has consistently shown he never learns from mistakes and is just a misfit for the job.
 
He has been ultra defensive in using bowlers , not giving any confidence to any bowler to being attacking even if he is going for runs , sometimes you need to tell the bowler to go and blow out the batsmen and don't worry for runs , never saw that strategy from Babar in his entire captaincy tenure.
 
Yesterday Naseem was swinging but he removed him just after 1 over when he went for runs , today Hasnain was swinging, he must have opened the 2nd over from Rauf as he can swing the ball as well if it's little swing available, but he opted for Nawaz and he then didn't bowled Hasnain third over on the trott because he was in good rythm and in the death Hasnain is always crap , I don't know if we can see any poor management of reasonably skilled sets of bowlers.
 
Honest question, has Babar actually captained a side to victory in a domestic tournament or PSL ?

Karachi Kings lost 9 out of 10 matches on his watch this year.

His two tournament successes be it reaching the semis of the T20 World Cup and final of Asia Cup were largely thanks to individual heroics (Asif Ali vs NZL and AFG; Nawaz vs IND; Naseem vs AFG) than any great strategic acumen.

We're miles behind the top teams in batting skill and fielding, but Babar makes things even worse through lack of game awareness and stubborn persistence with nonperformers.
 
It's a simple strategy of utilizing the maximum swing available when the ball is new even if you are going for runs , you are surely going to get a couple of wickets either off genuine edge ,top edge ,LBW or just stumps rattling, it will definitely going to happen even 2 or 3 times even if you are going for 10+ in an over , and if the score board is 40/3 after 4 overs it is still a good bet as the English won't take any more risk against spinners and if you get one more wicket it's pretty much a 140-160 total on the cards, or even lower if the opposition team doesn't finish well , this strategy will work 8/10 against every team on the pitch where there is little swing in the first 4 overs , our bowlers are skill full enough to do that as well.
 
I look at Mooen's innings today.

You know his hitting areas, his strong areas, you know what sort of field you need to set and where your bowlers need to bowl at him.

Yet we see none of the above from the skipper.
 
Babar has been a class captain leading from the front. His changes against India and Afghanistan in the Asia Cup were awesome!

Best captain Pakistan have had in decades. Just some silverware and he can register himself as the GOAT Pakistani cricketer.
 
Despite today's win, I think his on field captaincy is mediocre and this might come back to bite Pakistan in a crucial game. He needs to get his tactics right.
 
The best bit of captaincy he did today was losing the toss. Asked about what would be a competitive score before the game, Babar said 150-160. You can bet if he'd won the toss, that would have been the score we posted and Pakistan would be 2-0 down.
 
Savak said:
Pakistan is wasting time by continuously persisting with a guy who has had enough time on the job and has consistently shown he never learns from mistakes and is just a misfit for the job.
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You could give the captaincy to Rizwan but he has enough on his plate while still being Babar's no.2. Could Shadab be the captain? It just doesn't feel right to demote Babar at this time.

Babar needs input and support from somebody who is more tactically inclined. He'll get there but his poor captaincy should be recognised so it can be addressed.
 
Muhammad Saad said:
He should focus on his batting and leave the captaincy to Rizwan
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Rizwan being a keeper and opener already has too much on his plate. We shouldn't repeat the mistake we made with Sarfraz Ahmed, who's performance dipped after captaincy. I think Babar is a mediocre captain but it's a skill that can be improved. PCB should hire a coach/consultant that solely works with Babar on captaincy tactics
 
Muhammad Saad said:
Yesterday Naseem was swinging but he removed him just after 1 over when he went for runs , today Hasnain was swinging, he must have opened the 2nd over from Rauf as he can swing the ball as well if it's little swing available, but he opted for Nawaz and he then didn't bowled Hasnain third over on the trott because he was in good rythm and in the death Hasnain is always crap , I don't know if we can see any poor management of reasonably skilled sets of bowlers.
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Do you call that swing ?
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
The best bit of captaincy he did today was losing the toss. Asked about what would be a competitive score before the game, Babar said 150-160. You can bet if he'd won the toss, that would have been the score we posted and Pakistan would be 2-0 down.
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Great point. Pakistan should always be chasing.
 
Slim said:
Babar has been a class captain leading from the front. His changes against India and Afghanistan in the Asia Cup were awesome!

Best captain Pakistan have had in decades. Just some silverware and he can register himself as the GOAT Pakistani cricketer.
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I agree he hasn't been that bad.
 
FdSAKvOXoAEFk-2
 
Wow didn’t realize he has already clocked 50 t20i as a captain. Surely not a young captain anymore who is learning his trade.
 
MenInG said:
FdSAKvOXoAEFk-2
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Sarfaraz’s record there is actually incredible. If you give Sarfi the tools he makes good use of them. He Pak career is likely over now, but it’s important to remember he was very effective when he had all his main players fit and firing.
 
KingOfPakBreakfast said:
Sarfaraz’s record there is actually incredible. If you give Sarfi the tools he makes good use of them. He Pak career is likely over now, but it’s important to remember he was very effective when he had all his main players fit and firing.
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Sarfaraz/Afridi and Younis khan were far more creative captains than Babar
 
Some criticsm of Babar from Tv Comms - saying he is too set in his way in terms of using Nawaz in PP
 
Babar needs to attack more in the field. We have a pace battery that consistently bowls over 145kmh but no slips for them
 
Has there ever been a clueless captain than Baber

Kept playing his friends (Hassan & Fakhar) until they killed 2 tournaments for us

hell bent on destroying careers of youngster like Haider Ali & Dahani by playing punctured tyres like Hassan n Fakhar

no innovation, from the beginning of the match to the end, just copy n paste bowlers, no change

shamelessly allowed Ben Ducket to sweep, sweep , sweep spinners and wont bring an off spinner or a fast bowler

shamelessly stupid .....

a once in a life time batsmen but garbage as captain.

really need to get rid of him as captain if we need to have any future
 
Duckett seems to play spin well, but the genius Kaptaan doesn’t bring pace on early. He allows him to settle by bowling spinners to him.

And that awful parchi Qadir completes his four overs. He is another friend that Babar keeps playing, like he was playing Hasan Ali was so long.

I am starting to lose my patience with Babar.
 
The_KING said:
Duckett seems to play spin well, but the genius Kaptaan doesn’t bring pace on early. He allows him to settle by bowling spinners to him.

And that awful parchi Qadir completes his four overs. He is another friend that Babar keeps playing, like he was playing Hasan Ali was so long.

I am starting to lose my patience with Babar.
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starting????

he kept playing Hassan Ali until he lost us the T20 semi-final

kept playing Fakhar until he lost us the Asia cup and by the looks of it, tht pathatic waste of a human being is still in the plan for wc

this robot captain trying his best to destroy careers of Haider Ali ( whoes natural position would be no 1/2 or 3) and Dahani

the blood of the akmals family had to do garbage stuff..
 
Once again lacking ideas and creativity in the field.

Bowling has been poor but the captaincy and field placings have been terrible.
 
Pedestrian captain. No fire, no tactics. He’s like Sachin in terms of playing ability but also captaincy.

Captaincy takes an incredible amount of situational awareness, ability to read your own players AND the opposition players, and ofc, having the character that brings an entire room together to trust and follow you.

We haven’t had a captain like that since Shobby Malik.
 
At least he's keeping Haris Rauf for death overs. Didn't pay off today but I hope he persists with this. Use Shaheen in the first 10 and Haris in the 2nd 10, kind of like what Afghanistan does with Mujeeb and Rashid
 
Not saying Babar made the wrong call, but I think sending Nawaz when the score was 1/97 @ 11.5 overs would have fared better.
 
8 overs to go and 9 wickets in hand, we should have sent out a Nawaz or Asif.
 
Love him as a batsman but a totally clueless captain. Awful team selections and horrible in-game management.
 
Terrible captaincy today. Sending Shan and Khushdil, in fact selecting and playing this trash, over Asif.
 
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