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India vs Pakistan T20 World Cup: Can Babar Azam come of age?
India vs Pakistan: Kohli and Sharma have earned their stripes in India-Pak games, Azam has not.
In a 31-second video clip posted last November, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had aired a coronation rarely bequeathed to a captain. Stepping out of a car in shades, crisp white shirt and the official green-and-gold tie, he throws on a striped blazer, walks up the stairs of Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium and then on to the stands from where he assesses the true realm of his duty. This is Babar Azam, Pakistan’s cricket pinup and their all-format captain, ready to reach for the stars or get singed trying.
Captaincy in Pakistan is life on a double-edged sword. Batters get some slack though. And the grace period tends to increase if you are a touch of class like Azam. No one has scored more for Pakistan since Azam’s debut. Quickest to 2000 T20I runs with the third best average (46.89) and the highest scorer in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), Azam is in a league of his own. Whether it’s hitting on the up or delicate glances, he oozes aura. Azam can be jaw-dropping as well, like when he late cut a yorker during a T20I in South Africa in April. And then, there is his cover drive - leaning into it, imparting just the right amount of thrust and looking effortless every microsecond. It’s everything it should be and yet you can’t take your eyes off it. Just like Virat Kohli’s. But let’s not go there. Mohammad Rizwan still isn’t Rohit Sharma. And there is no MS Dhoni like figurehead to take the pressure off Azam’s shoulders. This is Azam, batting genius, and often a lone act.
Azam has adjusted well, considering the enormity of his responsibility. The first casualty normally is the strike rate and it wasn’t an aberration in Azam’s case as well. From 119.72 in 2017 to 126.51 in 2018, 136.99 in 2019 and 144.5 in 2020, Azam was his free-flowing self. But it has taken a slight beating ever since he started to bat longer, more particularly after he became all-format captain. The strike rate has come down to 132.74 in 2021 but Azam is converting more starts and Pakistan winning more matches in turn. Only twice in 2019 did he bat for 40 balls or more. In 2021, it rose to six, four of them leading to wins. This season’s PSL is another example where Azam had a lower strike rate (132.54) then Sohaib Maqsood or Sharjeel Khan but ended top scorer with 554 runs in 11 matches, at an average of 69.25. And since this is the UAE, where the just-concluded IPL has shown that control matters more than strike rate, Azam can dictate the batting by being central to it while players bat around him. That seems the only practical approach.
Where it’s a little shaky though is Pakistan’s build-up to the World Cup, with head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis quitting just over a month away to the event. There were rumours of both Misbah and Azam not happy with some of the selections. And then Pakistan complicated it more by opting for the safe cover of Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez. It’s not reported if these tweaks had got Azam’s consent but with Pakistan, you can always imagine a little bit of chaos around such big-ticket tournaments. Azam though has shown clarity of thought in declaring the 12 ahead of India. Cohesion within the side may be a big if, given the late changes, but that ship has sailed.
Everything can be swept under the rug with runs though. Don’t look beyond Fakhar Zaman’s hundred in the 2017 Champions Trophy final to understand how a defining innings adds spring to Pakistan’s steps. Zaman is very much there. So are a few others. But it has to come from Azam who is yet to score an ODI fifty against India, or feature in a T20I against them for that matter. He is 27, the same age Kohli had authored that epic 55 in a nerve-wracking chase against Pakistan at Eden Gardens during the 2016 T20 World Cup. This is his turn. It flies in the face of reason but that’s how it is - you can’t be a great unless you have single-handedly won at least one India-Pakistan match. Kohli and Sharma have earned their stripes, but not Azam. This is no perform-or-perish kind of scenario for him. Actually, it's much worse.
