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[PICTURES/VIDEOS] What now for Babar Azam?

mominsaigol

mominsaigol

Test Debutant
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Apr 14, 2021
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After the end of the t20 2024 World Cup, I am shocked to see a thread being made about Rizwan, Chacha, Fakhar, Shaheen etc etc, but no thread discusses the future for Babar Azam who is currently the face of Pakistan.

From 2016 to 2021 it's suffice to say that Babar was Pakistan’s most consistent batsmen with very impressive innings and numbers, Including

- 3 Back to Back 100's against West Indies.

- 3 Back to Back 100's against Sri Lanka in 2017 resulting in Back to back wins for pakistan.

- An impressive 100 against australia despite pakistan losing the game

- A very impressive 100 against SA and his career best 158 against England.

- A well controlled knock in 2019 against NZ

- Highest run scorer of the tournament in 2021 wc.

- in t20 despite scoring 3 100's, his career best knock is beating India by a humiliating 10 wicket victory by playing the likes of bumrah.

- In test his 197 knock against australia is a noteworthy achievement.

^^ It's suffice to say, Babar was a very good batsmen during this time and all complaints from his haters irrespective of the bowling line up was unjustified.

All that changed from 2022 to 2024.

- In 2022 wc Babar had a nightmare of a tournament with his performance possibly being the top 5 worst t20 opening performances of all time.

- Followed by 2023 Asia cup where deapite bullying Nepal for 151 which is expected for a batter that was once the top scorer in 2021, He failed miserably against every other established team in the tournament.

- This proceeded in wc 2023, where despite a few flashy strokes of brilliance, it simply wasn't a good look when the world's no 1 icc ranked batter is getting outperformed by his own teammates(Rizwan, Fakhar, Abdullah shafiq)

- 2024 t20 wc didn't do Babar any favours either, with a medicore performance against USA, and the worlds no 3 icc ranked t20 batter hiding behind tailenders in the all important super over for Pakistan and ultimately finishing off with a sr of 107 in the cup.

Finally in terms of captaincy, Babar has been critisized as one of the worst captains for pakistan in recent times. Despite showcasing dominant performances in Bilaterals, Babar’s tournament record Has only proceeded to deteriorate as time went on, From reaching the semi final in 2021 and final in 2022, to failing to qualify for the semi's in 2023, to not even making it to Super 8's in 2024 and letting USA cross over instead.

Now the Question is, What now for Babar Azam?

Here are the options

Option 1: Drop Babar as a captain for poor captaincy and Drop him as a batsmen for poor form.

Option 2: Drop Babar as a captain but have him play as a specialist batsmen and focus on improving Babar back to his 2019-2021 form. By giving him confidence and improving his fitness

Option 3: Keep Babar as a captain and Keep him as a player and hope he gets better as time progresses.

My own perspective is Option 2, as I really liked Babar before 2022. It's 2022 to 2024 where he has started to disappoint his fans
 
Rana said:
He doesn’t believe that

Nor does he care about what others tell him.
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He should be stripped off captaincy if he doesn't resign.

Not every good player is good for captaincy. For example, Tendulkar was never a good captain.
 
The only person in this world who can get through to Babar Azam is probably Ramiz Raja.

Just imagine. Not Wasim Akram, or Brian Lara, or Sachin Tendulkar, or Ricky Ponting.

Only Ramiz Raja can tell Babar “I think you should put captaincy to a side now”, and Babar is likely to listen to him.


This is the state of Pakistan’s modern legend.
 
I don't think he has it in him to take his game to the next level.

He is at the stage where he needs to dig deep and find the hunger to improve his game and fitness. He should be wanting to dictate and own innings I'm every format instead he is content being the dude that plays the odd cheeky shot and cute drives.

But I don't think he has it in him at all sadly. No desire to improve his game. No desire to improve his fitness and no desire to do what's best for the team.
 
Bob loves captaincy more than his life. Things he's done to some of his teammates when in power, he fears the same will be done to him in revenge. (Will be forced to line up to get footballs kicked at his behind). And much more which should not be revealed.

Don't think he'll be able to handle the grief of captainship being snatched for the second time in such short duration.

There is huge risk of a global generational talent going into depression. PCB should act with caution.
:inti
 
He is by far the best batsman Pakistan has and needs to keep improving.
Leave captaincy, as Pakistan cricket captaincy is too much of a toxic crown to have. Avoid aaltu faaltu politics and just play with his bat.
Sachin left captaincy readily when he found it was not his cup of tea. Just focused on batting.
 
mominsaigol said:
After the end of the t20 2024 World Cup, I am shocked to see a thread being made about Rizwan, Chacha, Fakhar, Shaheen etc etc, but no thread discusses the future for Babar Azam who is currently the face of Pakistan.

From 2016 to 2021 it's suffice to say that Babar was Pakistan’s most consistent batsmen with very impressive innings and numbers, Including

- 3 Back to Back 100's against West Indies.

- 3 Back to Back 100's against Sri Lanka in 2017 resulting in Back to back wins for pakistan.

- An impressive 100 against australia despite pakistan losing the game

- A very impressive 100 against SA and his career best 158 against England.

- A well controlled knock in 2019 against NZ

- Highest run scorer of the tournament in 2021 wc.

- in t20 despite scoring 3 100's, his career best knock is beating India by a humiliating 10 wicket victory by playing the likes of bumrah.

- In test his 197 knock against australia is a noteworthy achievement.

^^ It's suffice to say, Babar was a very good batsmen during this time and all complaints from his haters irrespective of the bowling line up was unjustified.

All that changed from 2022 to 2024.

- In 2022 wc Babar had a nightmare of a tournament with his performance possibly being the top 5 worst t20 opening performances of all time.

- Followed by 2023 Asia cup where deapite bullying Nepal for 151 which is expected for a batter that was once the top scorer in 2021, He failed miserably against every other established team in the tournament.

- This proceeded in wc 2023, where despite a few flashy strokes of brilliance, it simply wasn't a good look when the world's no 1 icc ranked batter is getting outperformed by his own teammates(Rizwan, Fakhar, Abdullah shafiq)

- 2024 t20 wc didn't do Babar any favours either, with a medicore performance against USA, and the worlds no 3 icc ranked t20 batter hiding behind tailenders in the all important super over for Pakistan and ultimately finishing off with a sr of 107 in the cup.

Finally in terms of captaincy, Babar has been critisized as one of the worst captains for pakistan in recent times. Despite showcasing dominant performances in Bilaterals, Babar’s tournament record Has only proceeded to deteriorate as time went on, From reaching the semi final in 2021 and final in 2022, to failing to qualify for the semi's in 2023, to not even making it to Super 8's in 2024 and letting USA cross over instead.

Now the Question is, What now for Babar Azam?

Here are the options

Option 1: Drop Babar as a captain for poor captaincy and Drop him as a batsmen for poor form.

Option 2: Drop Babar as a captain but have him play as a specialist batsmen and focus on improving Babar back to his 2019-2021 form. By giving him confidence and improving his fitness

Option 3: Keep Babar as a captain and Keep him as a player and hope he gets better as time progresses.

My own perspective is Option 2, as I really liked Babar before 2022. It's 2022 to 2024 where he has started to disappoint his fans
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Needless to say option 1 is best for Pakistan cricket right now.

Doesn’t mean the door is closed, just gives him a kick up the backside and sends a strong message to everyone else.

Unfortunately option 3 is what will happen - I have no idea why the PCB bows to him, but they will.
 
Still by far the most dependable batsmen in the Pakistan cricket team. It is true that he is not an elite level match winner with the bat, but given the state of the Pakistan cricket team, what he brings to the table is still on a consistent basis is still more than what others are doing. He remains an automatic selection in all three formats for Pakistan and their number one contender for captaincy.
 
Babar won’t step down, so Pakistan fans who wish to see him to get sacked as captain, must hope for his improvement rather than expecting surgeries.
 
Hold on to captaincy as long as possible.. this is what he will do.. don't think he is improving any further.. another waste of a career.. most probably.
 
You cant keep chopping and changing. PCB messed this up royally by giving and then snatching the captaincy from Shaheen. Now they are forced to stick with Babar till CT 25 and hope a successor emerges.

if Pakistan does poorly at home tests, there will be clamoring to make Babar the test captain again too because Masood's position is not assured, let alone captaincy
 
I personally want Babar to improve his fitness and form.

His lovers think he's the 2nd coming of kohli and the best pakistani batsmen of all time but his haters think he's the worst batsmen of all time.

Truth is Babar was a very good batsmen for pakistan from 2016 to 2021. He wasnt any Warner but he was a good solid batter.

Captaincy + lack of fitness and ego ruined him which is why he's been a virtual tailender since 2022.
 
As OP mentioned above, Babar was fluent and a free-flowing batter until 2021. Since then, he has been playing like KL Rahul, who always worries about getting out and is obsessed with quantity over quality. He would improve if he changes his batting approach.
 
Needs to bat at 3 and abandon captaincy. He’s better there and it’s for the best of the team. Needs to bat 3 in PSL too. I agree he should get back his fitness too.

But I think he’s obsessed with captaincy. People said he should do a Tendulkar and step aside but he’s not like him. He’s more like Kohli who like Babar would never step aside captaincy without a fight. He can’t stand failing at something and will keep trying till he succeeds at it, his way. That’s his mentality. I don’t think he’s exactly he’s the humble type. Very few cricketers would have taken back captaincy in the way he did after Shaheen, but Babar did and that shows his longing for it.

He’s also improved at captaincy albeit slowly. Saw that in the recent PSL too. Which makes it easier for him to think to stay on. If when he was a worse captain at the beginning and people wanted him to stay, why do they want him out now when he’s learnt and got better? Probably feels eventually he will be great at it.

The biggest issue with these type of cricketers is he should have got captaincy younger in his life in domestic. It took so long for him to get PSL captaincy. Would have had more time to improve in domestic, so he’d be better by the time he was given in internationals. And would have been able to judge whether he’s good enough for international captaincy before giving him the role. It probably feels a major embarrassment for Babar if international captain doesn’t work out. And it’s not exactly just him, previous pak cricketers reacted pretty badly losing captaincy too. It’s a good thing guys like Shadab and Shaheen have got captaincy early, we won’t have a situation like this hopefully again as a result.

Either way we lose unfortunately. Don’t think everything will go back to normal when/if Babar is removed from captaincy. The mistake was giving him captaincy in the first place when he had little experience and record. It filled his head with captaincy ambitions. You can’t just turn back on that easily now.
 
Arrogance is bliss, his head is on cloud not 9 but cloud 99 his data bohat se ab unlimited hai, he should resign from captaincy of all formats and just concentrate on scoring runs, but I get the feeling he won't because he knows deep down he won't get picked in t20 team. (he's not a opener, he's a middle order bat who struggles against spin)
 
Babar haters will probably have my head for this, but I don't mind bobby being an all format opener.

He use to be an opener in his under 19 days and tbh, he only was given no 3 because mickey wanted to keep the tradition of your best batsmen batting at no 3, your best player of spin batting at no 4 (Haris/Hafeez) and your X factor opening (Fakhar)

Babar was also one of the reasons pakistan was ranked no 1 in 2018 and he use to open with fakhar during that time period.

Problem is babar's form, His form since the past 2 years is dreadful. No 1, no 3 or whatever isn't fixing the fact that his form sucks
 
The one thing I appreciate about Sachin is that the two times he captained India, he knew that he wasn't a good enough. Sachin knew that he wasn't good enough the first time in 1996 and gave it up just after a year and then he took it up again in 1999 and once again decided to let go. But again Sachin was very young, he was only 23 & 25 when he was captain. After those two stints, Sachin never accepted captaincy when it was offered to him at the later stages. Babar needs to do that. Not all good/great batters are good captains. He should hand it over to someone else and concentrate on scoring runs for the team and help the team get better. A senior player need not be captain to help the team grow and perform. Even when Virat was captain, he always consulted with Dhoni, Rohit, Rahane, Pujara, Ashwin etc. Babar can be part of that think tank. It will be better if he makes the decision by himself rather than the selectors doing it. It will help his ego at least.
 
Bhaijaan said:
Still by far the most dependable batsmen in the Pakistan cricket team. It is true that he is not an elite level match winner with the bat, but given the state of the Pakistan cricket team, what he brings to the table is still on a consistent basis is still more than what others are doing. He remains an automatic selection in all three formats for Pakistan and their number one contender for captaincy.
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yes. we can always depend on him to destroy the scoring rate and any chances we might have of winning... very dependable when it comes to making absolutely shocking captaincy decisions... please let's get rid of this toxic captain and player...
 
babar should be kicked out of t20is. He is not a T20 player,he will never be a T20 player.

He should be nowhere near odi captaincy. Even though he failed in 2023 world cup very badly. He's still a decent odi player and he was never a good test player but he can continue in both these formats.

Until and unless Pakistan cricket board takes away all his power Pakistan's performance will keep getting worse and worse. He is destroying Pakistan cricket by playing his friends instead of other guys on merit.
 
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Babar should be relieved of captaincy immediately. The world knows that Babar is not fit for that role. Play him as a specialist batter and he should be fine.
 
Can I have an Option 4:

Seriously, I would send Babar to domestic cricket to sort his act out and severely inflated ego. He doesn’t deserve to play as a batsman when he doesn’t play for the team and I don’t even what to entertain any debate as far as his captaincy is concerned.
 
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Rana said:
When was he ever the king? King of delusions?
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Babar was a marketing propaganda.

People forget who was the originator of the words " THE KING STANDS TALL ONCE AGAIN"

Seriously guess who was the commentator who started this trend, Who marketed babar as the world's finest in every game pakistan played.

I'll give everyone a hint, his first name starts with R and his last name also starts with R.
 
mominsaigol said:
Babar was a marketing propaganda.

People forget who was the originator of the words " THE KING STANDS TALL ONCE AGAIN"

Seriously guess who was the commentator who started this trend, Who marketed babar as the world's finest in every game pakistan played.

I'll give everyone a hint, his first name starts with R and his last name also starts with R.
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The one who took it to the next level was Urooj Mumtaz. That homage she paid to him when Babar scored a T20 hundred off 60 balls against NZ C (lister, McChonchie etc) at Lahore when Urooj was hyping him up like Mark Nicholas hyping Brian Lara.

Ramiz
Urooj
Sana Mir
Bazid Khan

They must also be held accountable for this
 
The worst thing that happened to Babar Azam was that innings vs NZ in the 2019 World Cup.

A lot of people took this innings as proof babar can play a defining innings. It was a decent innings, but left to his own devices he would have either lost the match or missed out on his century or both.

Babar started brightly enough but the pressure started to tell and he was struggling in the middle of the innings. Haris Sohail was the one that took charge and a lot of the pressure off Babar. Babar could continue at his own pace and play for his hundred at the other end. For me the whole innings was a facade.

What I was looking for was a dominant innings, not necessarily a hundred. We all knew babar could play but at the time I felt he cannot really hurt the opponents, and I felt the same after that innings.

Unfortunately the facade of a century had everyone convinced he had “proved himself”. This set in motion the absolutely ridiculous decision to make him captain almost immediately after that World Cup. He hasn’t really progressed as a batsman since then.

That innings could have been the launchpad to further improving his batting, but personally it’s stagnated.
 
mominsaigol said:
Babar was a marketing propaganda.

People forget who was the originator of the words " THE KING STANDS TALL ONCE AGAIN"

Seriously guess who was the commentator who started this trend, Who marketed babar as the world's finest in every game pakistan played.

I'll give everyone a hint, his first name starts with R and his last name also starts with R.
Click to expand...

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing Pakistani’s you don’t need any Chukkaz in the PP overs
 
Former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif while speaking in an interview on a local YouTube podcast:

“To be honest, we only have Babar Azam at this point. He is above captaincy, and he shouldn’t run after it. I don’t know why he is after captaincy. Babar Azam is currently the backbone; even if he steps out of the circle, he will manage. He is the only proper player right now. I don’t know why he is being dragged into politics, or if he is getting involved in it, he shouldn’t do that. He is above the captaincy and needs to carry the young players in his circle along with him. Such politics could damage his career,”
 
BouncerGuy said:
Former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif while speaking in an interview on a local YouTube podcast:

“To be honest, we only have Babar Azam at this point. He is above captaincy, and he shouldn’t run after it. I don’t know why he is after captaincy. Babar Azam is currently the backbone; even if he steps out of the circle, he will manage. He is the only proper player right now. I don’t know why he is being dragged into politics, or if he is getting involved in it, he shouldn’t do that. He is above the captaincy and needs to carry the young players in his circle along with him. Such politics could damage his career,”
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What does he mean by > the captaincy?
 
It was an odd day at the office for Babar.

Expect him to make a big come back in this series.
 
CricketCartoons said:
If he had scored against BD, they would call him statpadder. If he fails, they call him over rated. It is always a lose lose situation when you are a star, and a win win situation for haters.
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Well here's a solution to that.

How about he actually wins you games against top sides? Where did he dissappear off to againat Australia in test? Or in wc 2023? Or in t20 wc 2024? Or t20 wc 2022 and asia cup?

He has been marketed as the KING. However the King throughout his 8 year ongoing career now has only managed to

A) Win you a game against NZ in 2019 wc with the help of Haris soahil doing the aggressive brunt work.

B) End Moqa Moqa against India in 2021 which was probs his best and most noteworthy innings to date

Throughout his entire career he's played only 2 memorable innings in whiteball, The format he's considered a king in.

Compare that to someone like fakhar zaman who deapite nowhere near being as inconsistent has

A) Played match winning knocks against atg England and India in a semi final and final in ct 2017.

B) Took pakistan to no 1 t20 rank by beating a full strength Australia in a tri series final with 91 of 46

C) Scored the highest ever score by any pakistani batter ever, yes it was vs Zimbabwe but since saeed Anwar pakistan has played minnow teams multiple times including the likes of usa, Ireland, Kenya, Scotland etc and no one achieved 210.

D) Scored the highest ever score for a pakiatani batter in a chase 193 against a sa attack

E) Scored 3 consequective centuries all being impactful including a 180 compared to Babar who's 2 conseqeuctibe centuries against West Indies just were no where near as impactful

F) Scored the best century for a pakiatani batter in a world cup stage causing a drs victory of a 400 in a world cup.

^^ All these are extremely memorable innings for a batsmen who isn't even consistent whereas Babar is marketed as the king of pakistan, The star batter who is pakistan's answer to Kohli.

Ramiz raja has twitter have even gone so far as to say that the day of judgement has arrived for teams as soon as bobby walks out only to find out that AHMED SHEHZAD of all people has better performances then him in t20 world cups.
 
Rana said:
Should never have stabbed his friend in the back
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He dented his career when he decided to take back captaincy.

He had the perfect opportunity after wc 2023. He already had claimed he sucked as a captain and would like to focus on his batting and stay away from media line light,

Only for less then a month later take it back again and call himself King
 
He is not as good as his fanatical fans make him out to be and not as bad as most of his detractors say. He is a good player and will do fine. He will retire as a Pakistani great.
 
SportsWarrior said:
He is not as good as his fanatical fans make him out to be and not as bad as most of his detractors say. He is a good player and will do fine. He will retire as a Pakistani great.
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And that's the issue.

Pakistani fans are so desperate that they have made up their own criteria for medicore cricketers to potray them as legends.

Ryan ten doeshant is a nedtherlands great, Lanichane is nepali great, gurbaz and nabi will retire as Afghani greats. It's a meaningless criteria to justify mediocrity.

Babar in 8 years of his career has only one memorable red ball innings 196 and 2 memorable whiteball innings which is mz 2019 and India 2021.

This is shockingly poor from a batter who people claim to be a king. Falhar zaman who's wildly inconsistent has more match winning and memorable knocks then bobby.

Kohli has so many memorable knocks, I can't even begin to count, Heck 2016 was one tire year of memorable knocks.

Babar from 2016 to 2021 was always a poor man's Hashim amla, Nothing more then a consistent accumulator. From 2022 to 2024 he's regressed to borderline minnow level.

He was always medicore.

YK, Inzi, Miandad, Saeed Anwar, zaheer abass and others are atg batters.

The rest like ijaz Ahmed, Aamer sohail, Mohammad yousaf are okayish, nothing good but clutch batters when needed.

Babar isn't even in the class of saleem malik or ijaz who were gun batters overseas and yousaf who was gun in test.

He's not even a pakistani great beyond statistics because he bats in an easier era compared to the others.

Indian fans still don't believe kohli is > Sachin despite kohli having better stats and numbers while pakistan fans believe that Misnah is > Inzimam in world cups due to having better stats haha.
 
People just see ICC events and judge him for those performances because according to them, it matters the most. You are right on your own terms. But the record of babar speaks for itself. He is still to be replaced by someone who is world class in long term.
 
BouncerGuy said:
People just see ICC events and judge him for those performances because according to them, it matters the most. You are right on your own terms. But the record of babar speaks for itself. He is still to be replaced by someone who is world class in long term.
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If he actually performed in top series then no would complain.

Where did he vanish during the aussie test series?

Why was 2020 pakistan so poor under Misbah despite babar being at the helm of opening? Even vanishing against Zimbabwe?

Where was babar during the wngland 2024 series before the cup?

Throughput 2023 his greatest achievement in odi was scoring a 100 against C team NZ in his 4th odi?

Ask yourself if he's bullying teams at full strength?

Inzi wasn't a wc performer, YK was amedicore odi batter But their famous for being a living nightmare during the 2000's against India in bikaterals.

Where does babar vanish off against India? The one side he has never had the luxury of playing b or c side against? Since India and pakistan only meet in tournaments and India has to play full strength. No wonder his record is so crao against them compared to other teams.
 
Babar is a fine player and earned his place in test and odi format ..T20 he needs to improve his strike rate .. Having said that he is not a captaincy material and should be released from that duty ..Though he is an integral part of the team giving over importance to him will only weaken the team..
 
Babar needs a rest now. I think he's mentally tired so he should step away from cricket for a while, organise himhimself and then come back. It might help him regain his form.
 
mominsaigol said:
And that's the issue.

Pakistani fans are so desperate that they have made up their own criteria for medicore cricketers to potray them as legends.

Ryan ten doeshant is a nedtherlands great, Lanichane is nepali great, gurbaz and nabi will retire as Afghani greats. It's a meaningless criteria to justify mediocrity.

Babar in 8 years of his career has only one memorable red ball innings 196 and 2 memorable whiteball innings which is mz 2019 and India 2021.

This is shockingly poor from a batter who people claim to be a king. Falhar zaman who's wildly inconsistent has more match winning and memorable knocks then bobby.

Kohli has so many memorable knocks, I can't even begin to count, Heck 2016 was one tire year of memorable knocks.

Babar from 2016 to 2021 was always a poor man's Hashim amla, Nothing more then a consistent accumulator. From 2022 to 2024 he's regressed to borderline minnow level.

He was always medicore.

YK, Inzi, Miandad, Saeed Anwar, zaheer abass and others are atg batters.

The rest like ijaz Ahmed, Aamer sohail, Mohammad yousaf are okayish, nothing good but clutch batters when needed.

Babar isn't even in the class of saleem malik or ijaz who were gun batters overseas and yousaf who was gun in test.

He's not even a pakistani great beyond statistics because he bats in an easier era compared to the others.

Indian fans still don't believe kohli is > Sachin despite kohli having better stats and numbers while pakistan fans believe that Misnah is > Inzimam in world cups due to having better stats haha.
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Babar is one of the best batters we have ever produced however his form and fitness have been poor for the last 2 years. I hope he snaps out of it and rediscovers his old self.
 
To the people saying Pakistan fans are hyping him, step away from social media and find me real-life fanboys of Babar Azam. I grew up in the 90s and saw the fanatical support guys like Afridi had. Babar does not fill out stadiums, he does not have a cult following, what he has is a generic celebrity following and a carefully curated social media presence that invested parties keep alive. hes a yes boy who knows how to keep the powers that be happy, i used to think the akmal brothers were haters for hating on him, with time ive realsied they knew him better all along.

i havnt met one pak fan in real life who fan boys him like anonymous social media voices. even on this forum he has very few die hard fans.
 
ElRaja said:
To the people saying Pakistan fans are hyping him, step away from social media and find me real-life fanboys of Babar Azam. I grew up in the 90s and saw the fanatical support guys like Afridi had. Babar does not fill out stadiums, he does not have a cult following, what he has is a generic celebrity following and a carefully curated social media presence that invested parties keep alive. hes a yes boy who knows how to keep the powers that be happy, i used to think the akmal brothers were haters for hating on him, with time ive realsied they knew him better all along.

i havnt met one pak fan in real life who fan boys him like anonymous social media voices. even on this forum he has very few die hard fans.
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I think you are right. But I do think he had started to build up a real following around 2021 with his amazingly consistent performances. He also came across a nice well mannered guy, which fans came to like and respect. But deep in their hearts, I think every fan understood that he needed to play a few Kohli kinda innings to be the real deal. And it seemed very possible that he could play them in the WCs in 22-24. unfortunately, those innings never came. The consistency is now. gone as well. And now the good boy/good team man image is slowly eroding as well. His fall from grace would have beeen harder, if we weren’t surrounded by so much mediocrity.
 
Babar needs to get out of him comfort zone and play as a batter. Forget about captaincy, forget about his friendship gang's ,well-being and carry them and save them every time. It is time for him to be a team guy and work hard for Pakistan and not for guys like Shadab or hassan etc.
 
His biggest mistake was accepting the captaincy again. It was a mistake from day one.

Ruined team chemistry but also put him right back into the spotlight when he was already struggling. The best thing for him is to spend time in domestic cricket and regain his form but will he do that? I doubt it.

When the Test captain is one of the worst batsmen in Pakistani history, it's hard to justify dropping anyone else.
 
He must seek inspiration from Triple H. When the Kliq broke apart, he formed DX and when that also fell apart, he formed Evolution. This is how you stay on top of the game. He needs new besties and this time they must be more loyal towards Bobsie.
 
Genuinely what now for the king? He's playing rubbish? Will we give him odi captaincy too?
 
Every successful batsman has gone through such a period in his career. Babar isn’t the first and won’t be the last one. There is no need of such overreaction.

He will be back amongst the runs soon. It is inevitable. Pakistan cricket has much bigger problems to deal with and he isn’t one of them.
 
Hitman said:
Go back to domestics. But we know it's not going to happen. PCB will never drop him.
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Certain players cannot be dropped because of the opportunity cost. It is the same reason why BCCI couldn’t drop Kohli from Test cricket between 2020-2023 when he averaged mid 20s for almost 30 Tests and there were a dozen batsmen in Ranji who could have done better than him.

Babar is not droppable and for a reason. There is not a single batsman in Pakistan domestic cricket who can compete with him.
 
Mamoon said:
Every successful batsman has gone through such a period in his career. Babar isn’t the first and won’t be the last one. There is no need of such overreaction.

He will be back amongst the runs soon. It is inevitable. Pakistan cricket has much bigger problems to deal with and he isn’t one of them.
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LOL what has he achieved in test cricket? Nothing. He is a failure. Only good for tuk tuk innings in LOI.
 
Mamoon said:
Every successful batsman has gone through such a period in his career. Babar isn’t the first and won’t be the last one. There is no need of such overreaction.

He will be back amongst the runs soon. It is inevitable. Pakistan cricket has much bigger problems to deal with and he isn’t one of them.
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Your number 4 averaging 20 odd for 16 innings is not a big problem?
 
It doesn’t get easier from here btw.

3 Tests v England
2 v South Africa in South Africa

10 more testing innings coming up against high quality bowling attacks.

Up to the team management really? You can either destroy him completely by letting him continue or you can carry on hoping. It’s clear that the guy is really lacking hunger and desire at the moment
 
Rana said:
Your number 4 averaging 20 odd for 16 innings is not a big problem?
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Difference between Babar and kohli were other formats.

In 2022 he scored a century against afghanistan in t20, played an atg innings againat pakistan. In 2023 he came back to test form and broke Tendulkar record.

He only had one bad year in 2021. Babar I'd failing in every format for 2+ years now, unless nz c team + Nepal century is the standpoint lol
 
Series with Zimbabwe and some stylish cover drives to keep the fans happy and excited.
 
aukhan said:
Series with Zimbabwe and some stylish cover drives to keep the fans happy and excited.
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I feel Zimbabwe are being disrespected here. They have 2-3 excellent seamers for these conditions that will trouble Babar too.

I think he needs a 5 Test match series against Nepal where the agent can tell Sandeep to go easy on Babar
 
pakistani pride said:
LOL what has he achieved in test cricket? Nothing. He is a failure. Only good for tuk tuk innings in LOI.
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It is not about achievement - it is about picking your best players. In spite of being in a rut for over a year, Babar still averages 45 in Test cricket. Can you please make a list of Pakistani batsmen in domestic cricket who can better that?

It is easy to be critical, but a little more challenging to come up with alternate solutions. Please provide a list of batsmen (who are currently not in the playing XI) who you think will do better than Babar and drop Babar by all means.
 
Mamoon said:
Please provide a list of batsmen (who are currently not in the playing XI) who you think will do better than Babar and drop Babar by all means.
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There’s a quite a few players that have done well in the last couple of seasons in domestic, but to predict who will do better at the international level without even giving them a chance to play isn’t right.

Drop Babar, bring in Sahibzada Farhan, push Masood down to 4.

You seem to think that it would be the end of a players career if they were to get dropped, but in reality it would probably be best for them to take a break, find their form in domestic and come back.

One player can change the entire look of the team, Babar’s performances may not be the biggest issue in the team but it’s also not going to hurt Pakistan if he was dropped from the XI.
 
As per unreliable info from unofficial sources, SAYA Corporation is allegedly negotiating with Pakistan's Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Begum Fatima Khawaja to introduce a new plan: slowing down the internet speeds of King Babar haters in Pakistan. The minister has reportedly given a thumbs-up and will explore how to weave this into the national firewall, ensuring that no critical meme about Bobby goes unpunished. Interestingly, Begum Khawaja has declared herself a committed King Babar fan—just a short while ago, she was all in for Usman Khawaja, but has rescinded all fanship after realising he played for Australia!
 
Mamoon said:
Certain players cannot be dropped because of the opportunity cost. It is the same reason why BCCI couldn’t drop Kohli from Test cricket between 2020-2023 when he averaged mid 20s for almost 30 Tests and there were a dozen batsmen in Ranji who could have done better than him.

Babar is not droppable and for a reason. There is not a single batsman in Pakistan domestic cricket who can compete with him.
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Please don't ridicule Kohli by comparing him with Babar. Kohli had won test series in Australia, you need to look at Kohli's overall record in Australia. What Babar has won for Pakistan in any format against any team? Whenever team needs him most, he is the first one to surrender. Timely self assessment / introspection is much needed for every professional which is clearly missing in Babar's case. Have you noticed single improvement in Babar's technique since his early days? He should go back to domestics and rediscover.
 
Markhor said:
After a horrid 2003 World Cup, Inzamam was dropped for a few months. He returned for the Bangladesh series, scored that famous ton at Multan, and the rest is history.

A spell on the sidelines could be the best thing for Babar.
Click to expand...

Lol at the spell on the sidelines. Laat mar ke nikalo saale ko and don't make it easy for him to come back into the team anytime soon till he has scored a big pile of runs in domestic cricket and is showing better fitness.
 
YousafTheBeast said:
There’s a quite a few players that have done well in the last couple of seasons in domestic, but to predict who will do better at the international level without even giving them a chance to play isn’t right.

Drop Babar, bring in Sahibzada Farhan, push Masood down to 4.

You seem to think that it would be the end of a players career if they were to get dropped, but in reality it would probably be best for them to take a break, find their form in domestic and come back.

One player can change the entire look of the team, Babar’s performances may not be the biggest issue in the team but it’s also not going to hurt Pakistan if he was dropped from the XI.
Click to expand...
The fact that you still think that Masood belongs in the playing XI at whatever position shows that you have no idea what you are talking about but we know that already.
 
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