'Players complain about him? No one can stand in front of him right now': Latif's explosive remark on Babar's captaincy

Rashid Latif launched a scathing attack on Babar's critics amid speculations over his captaincy future with Pakistan.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam won twin-ICC accolades on Thursday, when he was crowned the ICC Men's Player of the Year, as well as the men's ODI Player of the Year. Babar produced consistent performances throughout 2022, scoring over 2,600 runs in international cricket; no other player could score over 2,000. Babar also had 8 fifty-plus scores in nine ODIs last year, as he repeated Virat Kohli's feat of winning successive player of the year awards in the format.

Babar Azam (Getty)

However, while Babar's batting performances have been lauded by the cricketing fraternity worldwide, his captaincy has come under significant scanner over the past few months. Pakistan lost two finals (Asia Cup and T20 World Cup) under Babar last year, and also endured a winless run in the home Test season (against Australia, England, and New Zealand). In fact, there had been speculations earlier this month over Babar's removal from captaincy and a reporter had even asked the batter on its possibility during a press conference.

While Babar had a disgruntled reply for the question, insisting that he doesn't know of any such developments, the Pakistan captain continues to face criticism on his leadership skills. There are many, however, who rally behind the 28-year-old too – and one of them is Pakistan's former wicketkeeper-batter Rashid Latif.

After Babar was named the ICC men's player of the year, Latif, on his official YouTube channel, lauded the batting superstar and also insisted that Pakistan lack alternatives to Babar for captaincy succession.

“You tell me the options. How much does Shadab (Khan) play? He misses 50 percent matches due to injury. He is not an option. If Shadab is available throughout, I would've said myself that Babar can step down. Shaheen (Afridi) is out of injury as well. There's only one guy who plays all the matches,” said Latif.

The former Pakistan skipper gave an example of Sarfaraz Ahmed – the former Pakistan skipper – to further make his point.

"Whatever is happening to Babar right now, the same thing happened to Sarfaraz a few years ago. That was a big mistake and we raised our voices against that. It was a very bad move. We still haven't recovered from that.

"If you think you can do a reset after removing Babar from captaincy... you said that the players are complaining (about Babar). There's no one who can stand in front of him right now.