Former Pakistan international Sikander Bakht has unleashed a fresh diatribe aimed at Babar Azam for his “lack of leadership” skills.
The former fast bowler made his intentions known during a YouTube interview and did not waste the opportunity to criticise the captain of Pakistan’s national cricket team.
“Honestly speaking, Babar has to learn a lot as a captain. There are so many people who are born as leaders. Babar is not a born leader,” he said.
“When he was given the captaincy, I said in my interview that he wasn’t a good choice. I wanted him to prove me wrong by showing his captaincy but he didn’t,” Sikander continued.
He backed his claims with a pertinent example.
“Let me give you a recent example. Agha Salman is an off-spinner, Babar only gave two-three overs to him in one Test, and in another match, he let him bowl complete overs. He also didn’t utilise Iftikhar,” he said while recalling Pakistan’s latest test series.
Sikander Bakht continued his tirade against Babar Azam by calling him a “script” follower who lacks spur-of-the-moment judgments.
“So many times I think Babar does scripted captaincy. He pens down the plan and comes with it in the ground. It doesn’t work at all”, he concluded.
This is not the first time a former international cricketer has criticized Babar’s leadership.
Despite leading Pakistan to the semi-final of the ICC T20 World Cup in 2021, the final of the T20 World Cup in 2022 and the final of the Asia Cup 2022, many have called for his removal from the post.
PCB is aware of the situation and many see Shadab’s appointment as captain for the Afghanistan series as an audition for him to take over the role permanently.
