Danish Kaneria lashed out at Babar Azam for being a "selfish captain".
Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria lashed out at Babar Azam for being a "selfish captain" after the Men in Green failed to bring the trophy home following their 5-wicket loss to England in the final of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia at the MCG on November 13.
The 28-year-old batter had a really poor T20 World Cup 2022 campaign, scoring only 124 runs at an average of 17.71 and a strike rate of 93.23 in 7 innings. Apart from his own performance, some of Babar’s decisions were also criticized, despite Pakistan finishing as the runner-up in the mega event.
Well, Kaneria advised Babar to stop being stubborn about not giving up his opening spot and asked him to think about the benefit of the national team.
Danish Kaneria said on his YouTube channel: “Babar Azam has been stubborn about not giving up his opening spot. The same happened when he was with Karachi Kings too. He is adamant about this because he cannot bat in the middle order. His stubbornness is only doing harm to Pakistani cricket because of the slow starts.”
The former spinner further suggested Babar look at Virat Kohli for inspiration on how to be a selfless captain and cricketer.
He added, “When it comes to being selfless, there is no one like Virat Kohli. The team lost the World Cup under his captaincy, and he was made the scapegoat after that. Many raised questions about his place in the team. But he didn't give up. He gave his full support to the new captain and played at the number he asked him to.”
Notably, Kohli finished the T20 World Cup 2022 as the leading run-scorer with 296 runs at an average of 98.66 and a strike rate of 136.40 with four half-centuries to his name.