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[VIDEOS] Babar Azam's inability to play spin is a matter of concern

Saj said:
Played around his front pad again today.

Head too far over to the off side and balance was all wrong.
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The one thing that has made Babar absolutely brilliant is his balance . . something just hasn't looked right since his come bck from the thumb injury . . Is it just a temporary dip in form? Or are these the early signs of captaincy impact on his batting?
 
Played all around a straight one, Babar goes for 5:

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Fast or slow - keeps on missing straight balls.
 
Still can't hit a straight one

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A mentally weak player who cannot handle pressure. Stop comparing him to the likes of Kohli.
 
A good innings today once again showing his class Some effortless shots all around the ground
 
Babar's issue with not getting his bat around his pad

amir1.jpg
 
Hoping he wont have any issues like this one during this series.
 
We need to see some improvement against spin. Also don’t want to see him hiding from spin like he did in that last T20. Teams know he has issues against spin, so were ever he bats he will have to face spin. I hope he opens in T20s, I am a big believer in the best players facing as many balls as possible.
 
I think he's trying to play through mid wicket when bowled straight. He should play through mid on instead.
 
MenInG said:
Hoping he wont have any issues like this one during this series.
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I think his presence and authority at the crease has become slightly weak since captaincy. Needs to focus on the basics. Good enough as a batsman to do that but the added pressure of captaincy is his real test
 
Good to see that babar played a sweep havent seen that before baring a couple sweeps vs new zealand in world cup
 
How to rectify Babar's biggest Achilles heel: Game against spin

Even though Babar's struggles against decent to quality spin have been apparent ever since he emerged as a promising batsman in world cricket, I feel his game against spin really hasn't gone anywhere. He has improved leaps and bounds in other aspects, such as:

* his defense in general which used to be very shaky in his primitive years of international cricket where he would play inside the line of high pace bowling and looked susceptible to getting bowled/caught behind

* his power hitting

* fitness in general
etc.


But, his batting against premier spin bowlers, at times, leaves a lot to be desired.


We have seen time and again that he looks helpless against decent-to-quality spin bowling and seems bereft of ideas. I mean Maharaj is a pretty decent left arm spinner but getting pinned on the crease and failing to counter standard arm ball was a pretty disappointing sight.

I haven't seen him struggle as much against spin before, as he was today. I mean you can excuse him for not playing Rashid well as it is very hard to pick him out of the hand but his gameplay against Mujeeb was extremely frustrating to watch; not being able to get even the short balls away was not only disappointing but also alarming. What it showed was that he doesn't pick the spinner (the carrom ones which are aplenty these days in int'l cricket) at all from the hand and wants to catch up with the spin after the ball lands. Sure, you can do if the pace of the deliveries is low but we know that generally these carrom bowlers bowl at quicker pace and don't give you time to read them off the pitch. Babar thought he could catch up with the deliveries after they pitched but time and again he was rushed and hence couldn't even put the shorter deliveries away.

Another thing I have noted with him is that he's very heavy footed against spin; doesn't have a real press forward like Younis; doesn't really move outside the line to negate LBW (like Rizwan at times) and is unnatural while coming down the track. He just wants to play from same position every ball. I know the value of being still at the crease but you have to make your move sometimes against spin in order to put them off their lengths. His only strength is picking slightly shorter length and going back to pull (but that too happens against orthodox spinners; against spinners he can't pick from the hand, he can be rushed like I mentioned above)


I really think he should spend a couple of weeks off season with somebody like Younis Khan and really pick his brains in terms of dealing with different sort of spin bowling and improving his game overall against spin.

In my opinion, if he's to become true world beater across formats and emerge as the elite batter, then he needs to fix his deficiencies against spin sooner rather than later.


I would love to know what majority of PPers think about it. Maybe I am reading too much into his it and perhaps these struggles are just anomalies rather than the norms?
 
Seen Sheen said:
Even though Babar's struggles against decent to quality spin have been apparent ever since he emerged as a promising batsman in world cricket, I feel his game against spin really hasn't gone anywhere. He has improved leaps and bounds in other aspects, such as:

* his defense in general which used to be very shaky in his primitive years of international cricket where he would play inside the line of high pace bowling and looked susceptible to getting bowled/caught behind

* his power hitting

* fitness in general
etc.


But, his batting against premier spin bowlers, at times, leaves a lot to be desired.


We have seen time and again that he looks helpless against decent-to-quality spin bowling and seems bereft of ideas. I mean Maharaj is a pretty decent left arm spinner but getting pinned on the crease and failing to counter standard arm ball was a pretty disappointing sight.

I haven't seen him struggle as much against spin before, as he was today. I mean you can excuse him for not playing Rashid well as it is very hard to pick him out of the hand but his gameplay against Mujeeb was extremely frustrating to watch; not being able to get even the short balls away was not only disappointing but also alarming. What it showed was that he doesn't pick the spinner (the carrom ones which are aplenty these days in int'l cricket) at all from the hand and wants to catch up with the spin after the ball lands. Sure, you can do if the pace of the deliveries is low but we know that generally these carrom bowlers bowl at quicker pace and don't give you time to read them off the pitch. Babar thought he could catch up with the deliveries after they pitched but time and again he was rushed and hence couldn't even put the shorter deliveries away.

Another thing I have noted with him is that he's very heavy footed against spin; doesn't have a real press forward like Younis; doesn't really move outside the line to negate LBW (like Rizwan at times) and is unnatural while coming down the track. He just wants to play from same position every ball. I know the value of being still at the crease but you have to make your move sometimes against spin in order to put them off their lengths. His only strength is picking slightly shorter length and going back to pull (but that too happens against orthodox spinners; against spinners he can't pick from the hand, he can be rushed like I mentioned above)


I really think he should spend a couple of weeks off season with somebody like Younis Khan and really pick his brains in terms of dealing with different sort of spin bowling and improving his game overall against spin.

In my opinion, if he's to become true world beater across formats and emerge as the elite batter, then he needs to fix his deficiencies against spin sooner rather than later.


I would love to know what majority of PPers think about it. Maybe I am reading too much into his it and perhaps these struggles are just anomalies rather than the norms?
Click to expand...

Well said bro. I got a feeling Babar Azam will work very hard on his game against spinners.

PS: We the Pakistani fans have always taken Younis Khan's legendary game against spinners for granted.
 
Babar has handled all spin pretty well. Last night in Rashid Khan's over he was just trying to up the ante, so his dismissal was understandable. He has scored runs against Indian and Afghanistani spinners as well as played NZ easily.
 
In the match against India he completely dominated Indian spinners.
Yesterday, Rashid was on top of Babar and that can happen. Rashid is a very good T20I spinner, match in Dubai, tight chase.

Babar played Rashid very confortably in England.
 
Babar has always been vulnerable to spin especially on slow and low wickets. Having said that Rashid & Mujeeb Khan on these wickets are extremely tough. Lets hold our horses before judging Babar alone. World cup pressure is a different ball game altogether unlike T20 leagues with nothing at stake.
 
arehaan said:
Babar has always been vulnerable to spin especially on slow and low wickets. Having said that Rashid & Mujeeb Khan on these wickets are extremely tough. Lets hold our horses before judging Babar alone. World cup pressure is a different ball game altogether unlike T20 leagues with nothing at stake.
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He completely dominated Indian spinner in the most high pressure game 2 games ago.

Even yesterday he still managed an important fifty. Sure Rashid was on top of him.
 
Babar can't do everything, let's just be thankful he's one of our best white ball players ever.
 
Don't worry the Maestro himself is working on it personally ;-)

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He is a very good accumulator, consistent run scorer but not a match winner like Kohli and his shot vs Afghanistan when he got out proved exactly the same.
 
Ab Fan said:
He is a very good accumulator, consistent run scorer but not a match winner like Kohli and his shot vs Afghanistan when he got out proved exactly the same.
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He can't hit like Kohli hit Hafeez and Shadab out of the attack.
Overall T20I strike rate of Babar is little better than Kohli when not playing in India for Kohli and UAE/ Pak for Babar. So I prefer the accumulator that scores at the same rate.
 
Mobashir said:
He can't hit like Kohli hit Hafeez and Shadab out of the attack.
Overall T20I strike rate of Babar is little better than Kohli when not playing in India for Kohli and UAE/ Pak for Babar. So I prefer the accumulator that scores at the same rate.
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The game vs Afghanistan proved the difference between him and Kohli. Kohli at its peak was a better hitter than Babar and overall, he is also a better anchor than Babar.

Virat Kohli is arguably the greatest anchor of all-time which is why he has won two player of the series award in WT20. Babar is a good consistent accumulator but not a match winner on his own. As an example, look at Kohli's knock vs Australia in 2016, the way he took the game on his own while chasing is not the kind of stuff that Babar has yet done or even anywhere close to that for that matter.
 
Ab Fan said:
The game vs Afghanistan proved the difference between him and Kohli. Kohli at its peak was a better hitter than Babar and overall, he is also a better anchor than Babar.

Virat Kohli is arguably the greatest anchor of all-time which is why he has won two player of the series award in WT20. Babar is a good consistent accumulator but not a match winner on his own. As an example, look at Kohli's knock vs Australia in 2016, the way he took the game on his own while chasing is not the kind of stuff that Babar has yet done or even anywhere close to that for that matter.
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Kohli is a batter anchor, Kohli is a largely better hitter and was ABDV/ Buttler level accelerator in his prime.... but his career SR in similar conditions, that means all matches not played at home, is the same (even a little less) as Babar Azam.
 
Mobashir said:
Kohli is a batter anchor, Kohli is a largely better hitter and was ABDV/ Buttler level accelerator in his prime.... but his career SR in similar conditions, that means all matches not played at home, is the same (even a little less) as Babar Azam.
Click to expand...
Filtering t20 stats by home/away is probably the worst way to analyse stats.
Anyone who saw Kohli at his peak knows he had way better hitting ability than Babar and his overall strike rate of nearly 140 explains that.

As for tests, Babar was trapped by Keshav Maharaj in Pakistan, Kohli scored 250 odd against the same African attack.
Kohli might not be amongst the best vs spin but he is definitely a tier above Babar.
 
Mobashir said:
Kohli is a batter anchor, Kohli is a largely better hitter and was ABDV/ Buttler level accelerator in his prime.... but his career SR in similar conditions, that means all matches not played at home, is the same (even a little less) as Babar Azam.
Click to expand...
It's good that people use their eyes to analyze players (along wit stats) otherwise they would call ABD (avg 26 str rate 135) a failure as t20 batsman.
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
Filtering t20 stats by home/away is probably the worst way to analyse stats.
Anyone who saw Kohli at his peak knows he had way better hitting ability than Babar and his overall strike rate of nearly 140 explains that.

As for tests, Babar was trapped by Keshav Maharaj in Pakistan, Kohli scored 250 odd against the same African attack.
Kohli might not be amongst the best vs spin but he is definitely a tier above Babar.
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Kohli is lucky he hasn't played more T20 in UAE. He has no clue to play T20's on these tracks.
Babar is much better in T20 on these tracks.
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
Filtering t20 stats by home/away is probably the worst way to analyse stats.
Anyone who saw Kohli at his peak knows he had way better hitting ability than Babar and his overall strike rate of nearly 140 explains that.

As for tests, Babar was trapped by Keshav Maharaj in Pakistan, Kohli scored 250 odd against the same African attack.
Kohli might not be amongst the best vs spin but he is definitely a tier above Babar.
Click to expand...

Why? Statistical analysis is done apples to apples. Kohli’s played home games on Indian roads with small ground, while Babar has played home games on sluggish UAE wickets in large grounds.
I would have thought Indians would have learned by now why SR for Pak players like Babar trend lower because they’ve played a lot of cricket in UAE. Babar’s SR at UAE is 110 vs 130 overall. If you take UAE out for both players, Babar’s SR is actually slightly better than Kohli’s.
 
This is an area that Babar def needs help in. His problem is that he plants his foot and plays around it, if he misses the ball, he becomes a big LBW candidate. He could look to open his stance but that will make him vulnerable to the ball spinning away. He could look to play everything off the back foot but if you miss any ball, it's plumb in front
Lots of hard work ahead but he is good enough to adjust.
 
Ab Fan said:
The game vs Afghanistan proved the difference between him and Kohli. Kohli at its peak was a better hitter than Babar and overall, he is also a better anchor than Babar.

Virat Kohli is arguably the greatest anchor of all-time which is why he has won two player of the series award in WT20. Babar is a good consistent accumulator but not a match winner on his own. As an example, look at Kohli's knock vs Australia in 2016, the way he took the game on his own while chasing is not the kind of stuff that Babar has yet done or even anywhere close to that for that matter.
Click to expand...

Babar hasn't reached his peak yet.
 
Ab Fan said:
The game vs Afghanistan proved the difference between him and Kohli. Kohli at its peak was a better hitter than Babar and overall, he is also a better anchor than Babar.

Virat Kohli is arguably the greatest anchor of all-time which is why he has won two player of the series award in WT20. Babar is a good consistent accumulator but not a match winner on his own. As an example, look at Kohli's knock vs Australia in 2016, the way he took the game on his own while chasing is not the kind of stuff that Babar has yet done or even anywhere close to that for that matter.
Click to expand...
What does this innings shows from Kohli?

Kohli's SR against spinners over the last 18 months is something like 105. One of the worst in the world.
Stop comparing him to Babar please.
 
Needs to play some more shots such as this:

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Mehidy Hasan to Babar Azam, out Bowled!! Babar has been castled and he looks bemused - was the attempted off-break that went straight-on, he didn't pick the varaition, went back as he tried to dab it past slip with an angled bat, the ball rushed onto him, went past the outside edge and pegged back the off-stump.

==

Problems with spin continue.
 
MenInG said:
Mehidy Hasan to Babar Azam, out Bowled!! Babar has been castled and he looks bemused - was the attempted off-break that went straight-on, he didn't pick the varaition, went back as he tried to dab it past slip with an angled bat, the ball rushed onto him, went past the outside edge and pegged back the off-stump.

==

Problems with spin continue.
Click to expand...

Before the dismissal they show his average against spin since 2018, it was 88.
I feel he has to do better against spinner also but he isn't bad at all.
 
Mobashir said:
What does this innings shows from Kohli?

Kohli's SR against spinners over the last 18 months is something like 105. One of the worst in the world.
Stop comparing him to Babar please.
Click to expand...

So you are comparing Babar's peak with Kohli's last 18 months. Lol

Also Kohli averages 60+ in India and has made double hundreds and hundreds against the likes of Herath, Swann, Lyon, Panesar, Moeen, Maharaj etc.

Please stop comparing both, it's embarrassing.
Babar hasn't yet played a good knock against spinners in tests.
 
Criminally overrated as a test player, not seen anything to convince me otherwise. Babar's not a patch on the likes of Younis, Yousaf, or Inzamam. If he has a career as good as Misbah ul Haq, I'd be pleased.
 
He does have weakness against spin. Left armers bowl arm ball which is their stock ball so there is no need to be surprised when it's bowled. But it's surprising with his weakness against even offspin.
International teams are going to work on this and make it very difficult if he does not rectify the problem
 
People don't respect Younis Khan enough

He made the best spinners look ordinary. Babar is not even 10% of Younis Khan
 
I am surprised he is struggling in Bangladesh.

I think it has something to do with fatigue rather than technique. He probably has the best technique in the Pakistan team right now.
 
Very bad test player TBH. Can't play spin at all. And considering Pakistan is playing 8 test matches at home next year & 2 vs SL away. It is very likely that by the end of 2022 his average will be around 32 if he doesn't work on his game vs spin.
 
Why doesn’t he become brave and open in Tests like he does in T20i? At least he might accumulate some runs before the spinners pin him down later in the innings
 
Babar prefers to play in SENA conditions were the bowl comes on to the bat he stil has issues facing spinners.
 
shamaan said:
Babar prefers to play in SENA conditions were the bowl comes on to the bat he stil has issues facing spinners.
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He prefers to play in SENA still somehow he has only 1 century in SENA, Pakistani fans just need to realize that this lumber 1 player is only suited for ODI's. He's too slow in T20's on most occasions & he's a walking wicket in test cricket.
 
ChTab said:
Very bad test player TBH. Can't play spin at all. And considering Pakistan is playing 8 test matches at home next year & 2 vs SL away. It is very likely that by the end of 2022 his average will be around 32 if he doesn't work on his game vs spin.
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He will score plenty of runs in Pindi where there is little spin.
 
shah_1 said:
He will score plenty of runs in Pindi where there is little spin.
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So at best that's just 3 games out of 10 in 2022, most probably he will flop in other 7 test matches. Plus to be considered as a great player he should score runs all over the world in all conditions.
 
Even today he was dropped when his score was 5.

He has serious weakness against spinners in some conditions. Even the rookie like Abdullah Shafiq looked better against spinners than him.

He should seriously work on this issue if he wants to be a top tier test batsman. He should take advise from someone like Younis Khan or Salim Malik.
 
Average player. Need to drop him for chacha safdar the chai wala. I heard he can play spin against the tape ball pretty good.
 
Babar looking better in this innings in the 2nd Test against Bangladesh. Needs to get a big one to get his confidence in such conditions.
 
MenInG said:
Babar looking better in this innings in the 2nd Test against Bangladesh. Needs to get a big one to get his confidence in such conditions.
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The simple way to avoid getting hit on the pad against left arm spinners is to open up your stance but that then makes you more vulnerable to the ball spinning away. He could play off the back foot but if you aren't used to play off the back foot, you are even more vulnerable. He could be more positive with his feet but that need hours of practice
 
Needs to go on and make a big one. None of this getting out in the first over stuff he has done a few times.
 
Hope this myth dies down now. Because it doesn't have any basis in reality.

In the last test, Australian spinners tried to repeatedly to bowl him around his legs by bowling into the rough and failed for two days. He showed yet again that he does not need the sweep shot and can pretty much just play the ball amazingly late and judge the spin.

And this is backed up by the fact that he averages 61 vs. spin in tests. And 48 against slow-left arm.

He struggles against some specific spinners. But he does not struggle against spin bowling or left arm spin.
 
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RedwoodOriginal said:
Hope this myth dies down now. Because it doesn't have any basis in reality.

In the last test, Australian spinners tried to repeatedly to bowl him around his legs by bowling into the rough and failed for two days. He showed yet again that he does not need the sweep shot and can pretty much just play the ball amazingly late and judge the spin.

And this is backed up by the fact that he averages 61 vs. spin in tests. And 48 against slow-left arm.

He struggles against some specific spinners. But he does not struggle against spin bowling or left arm spin.
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Left arm spinners ?????
 
Good innings for 57 but should have gone on to take Pak to a win

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MenInG said:
Good innings for 57 but should have gone on to take Pak to a win

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Not sure whether you're watching the same game.
The one I'm watching he has played an awful innings.
Came in when RRR was around 6 & when he was back in the dressing room RRR was above 7.5
 
Extremely selfish player going at a striker rate of 70 whilst chasing 300 plus sums him up

He Will never even be half as good as kohli once once.

This selfish timid player is just a stat paddler and todays innings is another example of that and he did this in the PSL and will continue to play at a snails 🐌 pace and lose pakistan many a game chasing simple. Needs to be dropped asap as a captain this selfish player
 
57 (72) chasing 300+ is not gonna get him included in any World ODI XI. When you watch him bat, there seems to be no reason why he can't find a way to up the tempo. He's been playing for a while now and the excuses in white-ball cricket are fast running out. Don't care what the averages say, but his white-ball batting is extremely frustrating. Don't think I'm gonna waste my time ever watching him bat again in ODIs unless a WC game against India comes along.
 
Really poor Innings from Babar put huge pressure on the rest of the batting line up.
 
pillionrider said:
57 (72) chasing 300+ is not gonna get him included in any World ODI XI. When you watch him bat, there seems to be no reason why he can't find a way to up the tempo. He's been playing for a while now and the excuses in white-ball cricket are fast running out. Don't care what the averages say, but his white-ball batting is extremely frustrating. Don't think I'm gonna waste my time ever watching him bat again in ODIs unless a WC game against India comes along.
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WHAT? He chased a 300+ target. Missed this. Shouldn't have given up on him last game :ssmith
 
A very good inning from him today. But he still has a lot to work on playing spin in all formats.
 
He has no issue playing spin. He has played lots of overs against spinners from all teams without issue. Just because he was rusty after Thumb injury in the SA series people started to think he cannot play spin.
 
PakPremi said:
He has no issue playing spin. He has played lots of overs against spinners from all teams without issue. Just because he was rusty after Thumb injury in the SA series people started to think he cannot play spin.
Click to expand...

You serious?? Every time I watched him vs Rashid Khan during the PSL & in WT20 it looked a tailender is facing Rashid Khan.
 
shamaan said:
Rashid can make anyone look like a tailender.
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Yes Rashid can but sometimes players do get better of Rashid but so far not even once Babar has played Rashid with authority.

Babar has played against Rashid in T20's 5 times & Rashid claimed his wicket in all these games. Babar has faced 48 balls & has scored only 59 runs.
 
ChTab said:
Yes Rashid can but sometimes players do get better of Rashid but so far not even once Babar has played Rashid with authority.

Babar has played against Rashid in T20's 5 times & Rashid claimed his wicket in all these games. Babar has faced 48 balls & has scored only 59 runs.
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5 time out is not good fit Babar but 59 runs from 48 balls is par. It's an economy of 7.4, witch is quite higher than the usual economy of Rashid.
 
ChTab said:
Yes Rashid can but sometimes players do get better of Rashid but so far not even once Babar has played Rashid with authority.

Babar has played against Rashid in T20's 5 times & Rashid claimed his wicket in all these games. Babar has faced 48 balls & has scored only 59 runs.
Click to expand...

Thier are many times players have got out to a single bowler multiple times with very low average.
 
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