Runs which, once, came so easily for Babar Azam have been evading him for a little while now. Bad form is inevitable in a player’s career. Regardless of the skills you possess, the hours you spend practicing, or the mental strength you have, one of these days you ought to be humbled by a trough in your form. Similar is the case with Babar. However, his persistent bad run is getting frustrating now. By the looks of it, you can not spot a significant issue with his technique. His dismissals are random, without any pattern, which is a good thing since he can calm down in the knowledge that there is not a specific type of mistake he is making.
A player of his stature, out of form for a period as long conjures opinions from everywhere. These opinions tend to break down every act of the player in question to understand what’s really happening. At the end of the day, however, these opinions remain as subjective as anything. Former Pakistan captain, Salman Butt, too believes that the real issue in this scenario is not Babar’s shambolic streak, but the utter absence of anyone to do a Babar Azam in the Pakistan team. This is what is filling the Pakistani fans with rage and frustration.
“There are two reasons [ as to why Babar is receiving the criticism]. No doubt, he is currently Pakistan’s best batter and, I think, the most consistent player of the decade. But the problem is that when a player struggled earlier, they were more out of form than Babar,” Butt opined in an interview.
“But with him, there were 4-5 other players who used to win matches, so everyone’s respect used to be saved and it was covered. Now the problem is that Babar has scored so much, then he is the only one who scores most of the runs for Pakistan. There is no one with him who can match him,”
The former batter also said that the team’s over-reliance on Babar was supposed to bear such consequences. For one, it has brought the right-handed batter under unnecessary pressure. Besides that, it also halted any kind of player development within the team.
“Now, when he is not scoring, it feels like Babar is not doing anything. Babar has made people habituated by scoring so many runs that people now want him to score lots of runs in every inning. Now there is no other match-winning player with him in the Pakistan team,” Butt further explained.
“You can see, the day he doesn’t score runs, you know that the Pakistan team will not win the match. So, this is the problem of Pakistan that you did not develop the players. You tried to develop everyone on the basis of power-hitting, the basis of playing openly. And now you don’t have players with the right techniques,”
The Pakistan team does suffer from a one-man syndrome. One man to celebrate when they win. One man to lambast when they lose. It is more convenient, perhaps, to lay all the blame or praise on one person than to dump it where it’s due. Team sports, however, can not resonate with this mindset. You win as a team and you lose as a team. That being said, Babar Azam can not hide behind this reason only. While there are obvious flaws in Pakistan cricket system, the Lahore-born has plenty to mend at his own end as well.
