Asia Cup 2023: “You were allowing game to drift”- Gautam Gambhir slams Babar Azam’s captaincy in Pakistan’s loss to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka qualified for the final by defeating Pakistan by 2 wickets.

Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir has heavily critiqued Babar Azam’s captaincy after Pakistan lost a must-win Asia Cup 2023 Super 4s encounter to Sri Lanka by just 2 wickets. This resulted in Pakistan being knocked out of the race for the final, which will be now played between India and Sri Lanka on September 17.

Babar Azam had chosen to bat first after winning the toss and with the match reduced to 42 overs per side, posted 252/7 with Mohammad Rizwan top-scoring with 86* and Abdullah Shafique making a half-century. However, due to the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method coming into play, Sri Lanka's target was adjusted to 252 instead of 253.

Pakistan then started well with the ball as well, but Kusal Mendis made 91, Sadeera Samarawickrama made 48 and Charith Asalanka remained unbeaten on 49 to take Sri Lanka home on the last ball with just two wickets in hand.

Following the defeat, Babar Azam's captaincy was criticized by several cricket pundits. Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir described Azam's leadership as "extremely ordinary," criticizing his field placements and tactics during the crucial closing overs of the game.

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“For me, extremely ordinary captaincy as well. There was a four-hit in Zaman Khan’s over over mid-off and there was another four hit in Shaheen Shah Afridi’s over over mid-off, and both those deliveries were slower ones. If you want to bowl slower ones, keep the mid-off fielder at long-off and bring the third man up. This is extremely simple captaincy. Imagine if you had 13 runs left in the last over, it would have been difficult for Sri Lanka,” said Gambhir on Star Sports.   

He said that Babar should have prioritized pressure maintenance over wicket-hunting because doing so might have changed the game's outcome.

“You were allowing the game to drift at one stage. You wanted to complete your sixth bowler’s quota. It doesn’t work out like that. When the partnership was developing between Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama, you should have brought on your main bowlers and tried to pick up wickets.

Pakistan could have won this game only by taking wickets. If Sri Lanka had batted till the end, they could have won earlier than they did. I feel Babar Azam will have to be slightly better in his captaincy as ODI cricket is not like T20 cricket,” said Gambhir.

Pakistan played this game without their first-choice pacers Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf as both were injured.