Former Pakistan wicketkeeper batter tears into Babar Azam post PAKs loss to New Zealand in fifth T20I

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is one of the top batters in the World Rankings. He is one of the players who select themselves across formats. However, despite being leading the team since mid-2019, Azam’s captaincy has always come under fire. Whether it is the 20-20 World Cups in 2021 and 2022, Men’s Asia Cup 2022, or the 2022-23 home season, his team has faltered at some stage or the other.

In the ongoing home series against New Zealand, both teams are playing the five-match T20I series and as many ODIs. The Blackcaps’ first-string players are busy playing in the ongoing IPL 2023. The New Zealand Cricket selected a second-string side against which, the Green Brigade was expected to win by 5-0. They had a great start after winning the first two games.

However, after losing the third game and the fourth game being washed out, the Asian side was expected to win the last game. However, while defending 194, the bowlers took four wickets for 73 runs. When the NZ’s win looked unlikely, the likes of Mark Chapman and James Neesham took the team over the line to level the series 2-2.

Babar Azam doesn’t know how to lead a side after four years: Kamran Akmal

After the game, Azam’s cousin and former Pakistan wicketkeeper, Akmal tore into the former’s captaincy. Akmal said that the current Pakistan skipper doesn’t have the captaincy skills despite leading the team for four years.

“Speaking of their mistakes, they deflect and accuse us of criticism. But our focus is on their captaincy, not their performance. We’re not blind to their abilities. He (Babar Azam) still doesn’t know how to do captaincy after four years – he doesn’t even know which bowler to give to ball to at what time. It’s no surprise that they lost when they continued to make the same mistakes. We didn’t control our errors, and that’s why they emerged victorious,” Cricket Pakistan quoted Akmal as saying on his YouTube channel.

“If both the left-handed batsmen were on the crease, the logical choice would have been to give the ball to Iftikhar Ahmed. But instead, we saw the leg-spinner Shadab Khan being given the over and was being continuously smashed by the New Zealand batters. It would have been wise to rest him and bring in another all-rounder to give the team a chance to regain their footing,” he added.