Pakistan batter Babar Azam continues to face flak for his slow knock in the ICC Men's Champions Trophy 2025 opener against New Zealand. Several fans and pundits have called out Babar Azam for batting with a strike rate of 71.11 when Pakistan were chasing 321 in Karachi. Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has now called out the right-hander, asking where the "intent" was.
Speaking on his YouTube channel ‘Ash Ki Baat’, Ashwin said Babar has all the talent in the world, but he still cannot understand the right-hander's thought process behind playing such a knock when the likes of Salman Ali Afgha and Khushdil Shah went hell for leather.
Babar Azam opened the batting for Pakistan, scoring 64 runs off 90 balls. However, the hosts lost the tournament opener by 60 runs. At the end of the first 10 overs, Pakistan's score read 22/2, and the hosts were chasing the game right from the beginning of their batting innings.
“I’m a big fan of Babar Azam. Sometimes, as cricketers, when we want to safeguard our reputation, it becomes a problem. Reputation is not ahead of the team. Babar's knock was very difficult to watch,” Ashwin said.
"Intent kahan tha. Ghar pe rakh ke aaya tha kya? (Where was the intent? Did you keep it at your home? I actually feel that, coming into the match, Babar Azam didn’t create shot options for himself. He doesn’t have any shots, there’s no shot for square of the wicket, no sweep, no reverse sweep, bottom hand is closed. There are no shots in his armoury. Such innings weren’t even played in the 1990s,” he added.
'It was poor play'
{{/usCountry}}"Intent kahan tha. Ghar pe rakh ke aaya tha kya? (Where was the intent? Did you keep it at your home? I actually feel that, coming into the match, Babar Azam didn’t create shot options for himself. He doesn’t have any shots, there’s no shot for square of the wicket, no sweep, no reverse sweep, bottom hand is closed. There are no shots in his armoury. Such innings weren’t even played in the 1990s,” he added.
'It was poor play'
{{/usCountry}}Ashwin didn't mince his words as he tore into Babar's thought process while going about the chase. Ashwin also said that Fakhar Zaman, with an injured muscle, was willing to take more risks than the fully fit Babar Azam.
“What did they play yesterday? In the first 10 overs, they scored 20 runs without any shame. Salman Ali Agha, what a batting display! Tayyab Tahir, too, is aggressive, giving them a good platform to play. Babar is charging down the ground to defend the ball, he’s just playing dot ball everywhere. For this, he could have just gotten out,” he added.
“What makes me sad is that I agree he’s out of form. He wants to return to form. But there are only three matches in CT. Even if one is gone, you are almost knocked out. It was the same Pakistan that chased 350 recently. How can you score just 20 runs in the first powerplay? It wasn’t powerplay, it was poor play," he added.
Pakistan are now behind the game in the Champions Trophy, and the hosts must win the match against India to keep their fate in their own hands. A loss against Rohit Sharma and co will put Pakistan's fate into the other team's hands. Fakhar Zaman has been ruled out of the tournament, and Imam-ul-Haq has been named his replacement.
“Later on, Michael Bracewell is bowling, Glenn Phillips is bowling, and even Fakhar Zaman is trying to hit six, but our man [Babar] is just charging to score nothing. At least in anger, he could have hit something. After he got to 50, he scored a six. I'm flabbergasted when you have such a good game and play with this intent. I couldn’t watch the match; it was bad," said Ashwin.