Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players'TV pe baith ke bolna easy hai': Babar Azam's smashing reply to 'Can't you play the role Virat Kohli does for India?'
Babar Azam gave a fantastic reply to a double-edged question about his captaincy and whether he can play the role Virat Kohli plays in Team India.
Babar Azam getting compared to Virat Kohli is nothing new. Babar Azam getting grilled about his captaincy decisions is also quite a regular affair, especially when Pakistan are not playing their best cricket and they have been far from it in World Cup 2023. But both them - the Kohli comparison and questions on captaincy future - merged together and hurled at him in one go is not something that Babar deals with often. Pakistan do have a mathematical possibility of somehow sneaking into the World Cup semi-finals but mathematical is the keyword here. The equation is so adverse that chances are it will remain only a theory. Naturally, there were a lot of pointed questions asked to Babar during the pre-match press conference about what could turn out to be Pakistan's last appearance in this World Cup. Among those, there was this double-edged one.
"With regards to your captaincy, can't a cricketer like you play the role that Virat Kohli is playing in the Indian team? To prolong your career and focus more on cricket? Because sometimes it feels like this burden hurts your individual performance," asked a reporter to Babar on the eve of the Pakistan vs England match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Babar's reply was an elaborate one. He did not mention Kohli's name but he was fully aware were the criticism about his captaincy was coming from. The Pakistan captain, often an easy target of fans and experts back home, minced no words in hitting back at his critics. "TV pe baith ke mashwara dena asaan hota hai . Agar mashwara dena hai toh number toh sabke paas hi hai (If someone has to give me advice, everyone has my number. It is easy to give advice on TV. If you want to give me some advice, you can message me)," Babar said.
Also Read | Wasim Akram's out-of-the-box 'timed out' strategy for Pakistan to make WC semis
Babar said he doesn't feel the pressure of captaincy. All these negative reactions have gained momentum only because he hasn't performed up to the mark and neither have Pakistan.
"I have been captaining my team for the last three years and I have never felt this way. It’s just because I have not performed the way I should have in the World Cup, that’s why people are saying that I am under pressure. I am under no pressure. I have been doing this for the last 2.5 or 3 years. I was the one who was performing and I was the one who was the captain. I was applying the same thing.
"I don't think I was under any pressure or felt any different because of this. I try to give my best in the field during the fielding. During batting, I think about how I should make runs and make the team win," Babar said.
‘Not focussing on captaincy future right now’: Babar Azam
The questions about his captaincy, however, did not stop. Babar was once again asked whether he reflects back on any of his decisions during the World Cup with regret. "I have no idea what decisions you are talking about. The decisions we make here, regarding the selection of players - are the decision of the coaches and the captain. We go with the best combination of conditions and situations. Sometimes we have succeeded and sometimes we haven't.
"About the captaincy – as I said, once we go back to Pakistan or after this match, we will see what happens. But right now, I am not focusing on this, my focus is on the next match," Babar said.
A lot was expected from Babar, both as a captain and as a batter but he fell short on both the departments. He scored 282 runs in 8 matches at an average of 40 but the impact of most knocks was minimal as far as the outcome of the matches were concerned.
"My goal was to get a good finish in the batting. I didn't have a goal to score 50 or 100. The main thing was to make the team win. The performance that helps the team, not my individual performance. I played slow, I played fast, depending on the situation. I play according to the situation and according to what my team need," he said.
