Pakistan’s white-ball captain Babar Azam has been the most prolific batsman for the side since 2018 and he yet again took the charge of his team, scoring a brilliant half-century to light-up day for the tourists in the ongoing series opener Test against England on Wednesday (August 5).
Babar came out of the Coronavirus-forced break in a style, as the star batsman showed the zenith of his powers on the Day 1 of the first Test of the three-match Test series by hitting 69* off 100 balls following the top-order collapse to take Pakistan to 139/2 at the stump in rain-hit Wednesday at Old Trafford.
The right-hander would be certainly looking for his 6th Test ton, ended the day one with a 96 runs partnership with Shan Masood, who also remained unbeaten at 46 off 152 deliveries – the highest deliveries faced by a touring opener in the first innings in England since 2016.
Despite having been outstanding with the bat over the recent years, former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja claimed Babar has an issue with his head position which makes facing outswingers problematic.
Pointing out that Babar facing the ball with open shoulders that would prevent him from playing his drives, the cricket pundit said the stylish batsman needs to iron out some of his technical flaws to be counted as one of the modern batting greats.
Ramiz said on his Youtube channel: “When that is happening it means that your head position isn’t right. The head is not locked in with the shoulder. When you open yourself up in that manner, facing the outswinger becomes problematic. This means that your drives will stop connecting.”
He also pointed out that Test captain Azhar Ali was struggling because of his tendency to overthink in his capacity as both a batsman and the leader of the side as he fell cheaply in the ongoing Manchester Test.
Raja said: “He is over-analyzing all aspects whether it is batting or captaincy. He should be more relaxed. It is important to switch on and off for a captain. You have to be turned on when the action is happening but you have to take a bit of time out when the action stops. He puts too much pressure on himself.”
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(With PTI Inputs)
