"PCB should ask Babar Azam if captaincy is taking a toll on him": Javed Miandad

[MenInG]

Speaking in an interview:

“Babar is a world-class batsman. But the board should ask him if captaincy is taking a toll on him. There needs to be an honest conversation between him and the board. If he feels he can’t both perform with the bat and lead in the field, then the captaincy should stay with him. However, the board should clarify to Babar that he is their preferred choice for captain.”

“The players need to think of playing for Pakistan first. Once you want to deliver for Pakistan, you will automatically put an extra effort whether you’re bowling, batting or fielding."

“Pakistani players need to realise that they are good that is why they’re in the final eleven. The question of whether you’re good enough shouldn’t be there. You are good, now you just have to deliver what you’ve been asked to do on the day.”

“Play to your strength. If you believe you’re bowling can do better, then you should defend a target. If you’re batting is firing on all cylinders, then go for the chase. It is as simple as that.”

“No one can predict who’ll win"

“When you get an opportunity you will have to avail it. You have to constantly analyse the game and take decisions.”

 

[Hitman]

The captaincy of the Pak team has been a game of musical chairs since Inzamam's retirement, bar Misbah's period. You remove Babar, and appoint someone else captain, and within 6 months fans will be asking to remove that player from captaincy as well. That's not how it works. Babar needs to lead his team for at least 5 years.

 

[Rana]

What is the point of asking him? What does Miandad expect him to say?

 

[Energy]

Yeah and hand it over to Asif Ali.

 

[Rana]

Yeah and hand it over to Asif Ali.

Damn right he should

 

[Varun]

Calling it right now.

Pakistan will appoint Rizwan as their next all-format captain.

 

[Rana]

Calling it right now.

Pakistan will appoint Rizwan as their next all-format captain.

Good joke

You people who claim to have sympathy for our cricket are doing us more damage than you think!

 

[ElRaja]

have to stick with babar, changing captain wont make the middle order magically start scoring runs. pakistans problems is general technical deficiency.

saqlain on the other hand does not seem to be adding much at all to the set up, should be sacked after the wt20.

 

[Mamoon]

I don’t think captaincy is taking a toll on him. His numbers with the bat during his captaincy are final across all formats, and as good if not better than his numbers before he was made captain.

What is taking a toll on him are the unrealistic expectations by his delusional fans who expect him to perform at a level that he is not capable of.

He is a Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam level player but his fans think he is better than Virat Kohli, who is a class above every batsman in Pakistan’s history.

I won’t blame the fans too much though - Pakistan is a talentless country and it is understandable that they are going overboard.

After all, Babar is the first Pakistani batsman in over two decades who has the ability to play all three formats.

When a talentless country produces a world class talent, it is inevitable that he will be overhyped.,

 

[Rana]

have to stick with babar, changing captain wont make the middle order magically start scoring runs. pakistans problems is general technical deficiency.

saqlain on the other hand does not seem to be adding much at all to the set up, should be sacked after the wt20.

If you make Imad captain, you could expect one of Babar or Rizwan slotting down to 3

 

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

The captaincy of the Pak team has been a game of musical chairs since Inzamam's retirement, bar Misbah's period. You remove Babar, and appoint someone else captain, and within 6 months fans will be asking to remove that player from captaincy as well. That's not how it works. Babar needs to lead his team for at least 5 years.

I'd agree with you on this normally.

But it looks like Babar isn't liking the job, his body language and form are affected and his fitness standards have dropped.

Happens to captains after the 1st year/2 year honeymoon is over, results are not going your way, people go after you after one loss, friends are calling for favors to play their man and you are surrounded by big players of the past who have their own theories.

His batting is what Pakistan needs. His captaincy brain is not the best.

Unfortunately consistency with Misbah didn't get Pakistan anywhere in white ball cricket.

So Miandad is asking the right question. Does Babar really want it? Maybe after T20 world cup, he steps down.

And while Rizwan is a candidate, I believe it may be much of the same.

I'd go with a specialist captain even if he is a waste of space in the batting order - things are that desperate. Can't think of anyone though.

 

[Rana]

Babar is 6 defeats away from having the most defeats as Pakistan captain

That too considering the vast majority of his games were against B/C teams

 

[Markhor]

have to stick with babar, changing captain wont make the middle order magically start scoring runs. pakistans problems is general technical deficiency.

saqlain on the other hand does not seem to be adding much at all to the set up, should be sacked after the wt20.

Babar is part of the problem. I'm under no illusions that a change in captaincy will make us worldbeaters, but Babar continually makes basic, costly errors.

Yesterday, he gave Nawaz one over in the PP then didn't use him at all. Jamal bowled superbly at the death to win us the 5th T20, but sat out for Wasim jr in the decider. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he keeps bowling Hasnain at the death which nearly lost us the 4th T20. His fulltoss merchant friend Qadir always makes the squad but Abrar doesn't even get a game !

He follows a script of saving his best bowlers for the end instead of going for the kill, which cost us the Asia Cup final when we had SRL 58-5. He doesn't use his part-timers well, either underbowling or overbowling them.

Babar's not the cause of our middle-order woes, but he's not helping them either by persisting with hapless Khushdil, and stubbornly refusing to move down himself.

His team combinations are no better. He started our tail at 7 in the deciding Test of a series vs Australia's potent pace attack. He thought it a good idea to play WK Rizwan at 4 in sweltering heat of Sri Lanka.

He's basically another Joe Root. Nice guy, star batsman, but not ruthless or tactically adept enough as a leader.

 

[ChipShot]

Shadab Khan is 10x the captain currently that Babar will ever be.

Imad Wasim has a far better cricketing sense than Babar. Shaheen has shown he's far better. Heck even Shan Masood would be far better.

Babar even in PSL was clueless how to handle team, what strategies to make, how to react when game is slipping away, etc.

Babar doesnt even know man-management. Dahani went for a few runs in one game, Babar gave him a good earful. Hasnain was being taken apart in 18th over, there was no going to him to calm his nerves, instead anger again directed towards Hasnain.

Strange tactics & OTT pride. Did not give an over to Asia Cup's top-wicket taker in the final nor to pacers DESPITE Rizwan asking him to, because of course how could anyone else have better wisdom than him (that of bowling Iftikhar who never bowled throughout Asia Cup!). Rizwan called for a review, Babar says to him "Hello, I'm the captain!".

Always says there's no problem with their strike rates, when it is one of the main reasons we fail game in and game out.

The less spoken about his test tactics the better.

His captaincy is way out of his depth at this level.

 

[KingOfPakBreakfast]

Babar is part of the problem. I'm under no illusions that a change in captaincy will make us worldbeaters, but Babar continually makes basic, costly errors.

Yesterday, he gave Nawaz one over in the PP then didn't use him at all. Jamal bowled superbly at the death to win us the 5th T20, but sat out for Wasim jr in the decider. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he keeps bowling Hasnain at the death which nearly lost us the 4th T20. His fulltoss merchant friend Qadir always makes the squad but Abrar doesn't even get a game !

He follows a script of saving his best bowlers for the end instead of going for the kill, which cost us the Asia Cup final when we had SRL 58-5. He doesn't use his part-timers well, either underbowling or overbowling them.

Babar's not the cause of our middle-order woes, but he's not helping them either by persisting with hapless Khushdil, and stubbornly refusing to move down himself.

His team combinations are no better. He started our tail at 7 in the deciding Test of a series vs Australia's potent pace attack. He thought it a good idea to play WK Rizwan at 4 in sweltering heat of Sri Lanka.

He's basically another Joe Root. Nice guy, star batsman, but not ruthless or tactically adept enough as a leader.

I fully agree w/ the assessment here. However, I don’t see many clear cut alternatives. Shadab has it in him to be captain, but given his fitness concerns, I wouldn’t give it to him. He’s a fighter, and someone who brings the team up with him. We saw this especially when he led Northern a couple of years ago. Things were going really well there before Imad returned as captain. I think Shadab is a lead from the front, responsible guy. I’m unclear on if he’s tactical or ruthless enough.

Rizzy is the other choice. He’s the safer choice, and his captaincy with Multan shows that he’s a leader and can get the best out of his charges. However, it’s the same as the Babar conundrum. Do we want to burden one of our only consistent talents with the captaincy?

Imad is probably the best shout from an experience and leadership perspective. However, his coming back means that we go back to him opening the bowling, which I’m absolutely not in favour of.

SSA needs more experience with LQ. He also needs to have his game time managed better. So, too early for him.

Asif Ali.

So those are are the choices. In my mind there’s no clear cut successor, like England had with Stokes for Root.

 

[Amjid Javed]

With the bat hes been excellent.

In the field and team selection / tactics wise hes on a par with moin khan and moyo as one of most clueless captains ever.

Current regime of Babar / mo wasim and Rameez is boring / negative and taking pakistan cricket backwards on field.

 

[ElRaja]

Babar is part of the problem. I'm under no illusions that a change in captaincy will make us worldbeaters, but Babar continually makes basic, costly errors.

Yesterday, he gave Nawaz one over in the PP then didn't use him at all. Jamal bowled superbly at the death to win us the 5th T20, but sat out for Wasim jr in the decider. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he keeps bowling Hasnain at the death which nearly lost us the 4th T20. His fulltoss merchant friend Qadir always makes the squad but Abrar doesn't even get a game !

He follows a script of saving his best bowlers for the end instead of going for the kill, which cost us the Asia Cup final when we had SRL 58-5. He doesn't use his part-timers well, either underbowling or overbowling them.

Babar's not the cause of our middle-order woes, but he's not helping them either by persisting with hapless Khushdil, and stubbornly refusing to move down himself.

His team combinations are no better. He started our tail at 7 in the deciding Test of a series vs Australia's potent pace attack. He thought it a good idea to play WK Rizwan at 4 in sweltering heat of Sri Lanka.

He's basically another Joe Root. Nice guy, star batsman, but not ruthless or tactically adept enough as a leader.

this is not babars script, this is the Pakistan way. it is impossible for one person to impose their will, Pakistani society works by group think. i have no doubt that the entire management has come up with these tactics and babar is for the most part executing by numbers.

suppose you have a morgan, stokes type personality in Pakistan. In that case, they will get hammered into conformity or ostracised until they either leave or have no interest in taking responsibility (an excellent example was younis khan).

babar is tactically pretty poor, but that is because he is too scared to take chances, and if the most guaranteed selection in the last 5 years of Pakistan cricket is that way, what hope is there for anyone else? even in domestics qasim akram was captain of CP but it was obvious malik was running the show in the t20 cup.

babar will never be a world class leader, but there is no other player who is consistently selected, let alone shown any kind of aptitude to be captain. which is why i believe a more professional management set up, i.e. a world-class coach would provide greater value than a change of captains.

 

[Bewal Express]

After the WC he needs to go. It will also be an opportunity to play him less as we are over dependent on him. Lets try some left field selections in batting after the WC

 

[KyoOne]

With the bat hes been excellent.

In the field and team selection / tactics wise hes on a par with moin khan and moyo as one of most clueless captains ever.

Current regime of Babar / mo wasim and Rameez is boring / negative and taking pakistan cricket backwards on field.

He's been excellent in only one game, when chasing 200+. He's been abysmal when setting targets, or even chasing recently.

Need to get rid of his outdated (Alaister Cook style) and timid captaincy.

And he needs to come in at no 4 with Fakhar, Sharjeel, Haris slotting at the top. We need to overhaul our batting before being embarrassed at the world event

 

[Amjid Javed]

Babar is part of the problem. I'm under no illusions that a change in captaincy will make us worldbeaters, but Babar continually makes basic, costly errors.

Yesterday, he gave Nawaz one over in the PP then didn't use him at all. Jamal bowled superbly at the death to win us the 5th T20, but sat out for Wasim jr in the decider. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he keeps bowling Hasnain at the death which nearly lost us the 4th T20. His fulltoss merchant friend Qadir always makes the squad but Abrar doesn't even get a game !

He follows a script of saving his best bowlers for the end instead of going for the kill, which cost us the Asia Cup final when we had SRL 58-5. He doesn't use his part-timers well, either underbowling or overbowling them.

Babar's not the cause of our middle-order woes, but he's not helping them either by persisting with hapless Khushdil, and stubbornly refusing to move down himself.

His team combinations are no better. He started our tail at 7 in the deciding Test of a series vs Australia's potent pace attack. He thought it a good idea to play WK Rizwan at 4 in sweltering heat of Sri Lanka.

He's basically another Joe Root. Nice guy, star batsman, but not ruthless or tactically adept enough as a leader.

Spot on comments, his team selections during Aussie and SL series were reason we didnt win either. He doesnt have balls to say to selectors i dont want fawad or Azhar in squads any more, both kamran ghulam and saud shakeel should have debuted by now. Add to that pretty much playing a tail from number 7 when your top 6 is poor was shambolic.

pakistan will lose both test series to england and NZ with babar in charge. ive never backed england to ever even have a sniff of beating pakistan away but they will with clueless captain in charge.

 

[TeymurBlake]

Give him the WC. After the likely abysmal performance, he with the coaching and selector will likely be let go and a new regime will brought in.

 

[ask_analyse_act]

I fully agree w/ the assessment here. However, I don’t see many clear cut alternatives. Shadab has it in him to be captain, but given his fitness concerns, I wouldn’t give it to him.

He’s a fighter,

and someone who brings the team up with him. We saw this especially when he led Northern a couple of years ago. Things were going really well there before Imad returned as captain. I think Shadab is a lead from the front, responsible guy. I’m unclear on if he’s tactical or ruthless enough.

Rizzy is the other choice. He’s the safer choice, and his captaincy with Multan shows that he’s a leader and can get the best out of his charges. However, it’s the same as the Babar conundrum. Do we want to burden one of our only consistent talents with the captaincy?

Imad is probably the best shout from an experience and leadership perspective. However, his coming back means that we go back to him opening the bowling, which I’m absolutely not in favour of.

SSA needs more experience with LQ. He also needs to have his game time managed better. So, too early for him.

Asif Ali.

So those are are the choices. In my mind there’s no clear cut successor, like England had with Stokes for Root.

Fighter lol, sick of hearing this.. Either you are fit, superfit or not...

They are not soldiers, cricket should be seen as a game just like another game..