Pakistan captain Babar Azam has slammed the experts who are sitting on the TV and giving him advice on how to deal with the pressures of captaincy. This comes a day before Pakistan probably plays its last league game in the ICC World Cup 2023 against England in Kolkata.
The Men in Green side has had an up-and-down tournament, winning their first two games and then losing four in a row. But then they bounced back to remain in contention for the semi-finals, but with New Zealand defeating Sri Lanka in the recent CWC 2023 match, the equation for Pakistan has become near impossible.
Pakistan needs to beat England by a colossal margin. The two sides will clash in Kolkata on Saturday and if Pakistan bats first, they have to defeat England by a massive margin of 287 runs or more.
The task becomes impossible if they are put to bowl first, Pakistan will have to chase down the target of 150 or more in 3.4 overs, 250 in 5.4 overs, and so on.
Former Pakistani captains Wasim Akram, Moin Khan, Shoaib Malik, and Misbah-ul-Haq criticized Babar's captaincy, terming it as not good enough for the role. Malik even said that under Babar, Pakistan has a culture of friendships, likes, and dislikes. He stated that Babar is a king as a batsman, but not as a leader.
In response to this criticism, Babar said that he had never felt the pressure of being the skipper as he has been doing the job for the past few years. The Pakistan skipper said that he is open to taking advice from people and they can message him.
"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,” Babar said in a press conference.
"It depends on how you take such a thing. Everyone has their point of view, and their own way of thinking. Everyone is saying something different. He should be like this, or like that. If someone has to give me advice, everyone has my number. It is easy to advise on TV. If you want to give me some advice, you can message me.
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,” he added.
When asked about his future as skipper, Babar said that he is unsure of that and will see what happens after the England game.
"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," said Babar.
Here is the video:
