Kamal Ghorui
The decision to push Babar Azam down to No.4 during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup created plenty of debate in Pakistan, and the experiment ultimately failed to deliver. The former Pakistan captain endured a difficult campaign as he struggled to accelerate in the middle order throughout the 20-team tournament. The situation worsened as the competition progressed. Babar was not sent out to bat in Pakistan’s must-win group-stage clash against Namibia. Later, he was also left out of the Super 8 fixture against Sri Lanka, a match where the Green Shirts had to secure a victory by at least 65 runs to keep their semi-final hopes alive.
Former Pakistan batter Basit Ali has now criticised how the situation was handled, saying Babar should have strongly opposed the decision to move him down the order. According to Basit, the batter should have challenged head coach Mike Hesson rather than accepting the role. Speaking on the ‘Game Plan’ show, Basit also cited Virat Kohli as an example while discussing how top players sometimes take strong stands. “Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman don’t have a voice. How come they agreed to bat in the middle order?” said Basit on the ‘Game Plan’ show. “I just have one example. Virat Kohli was not made the captain, he said, ‘Okay bye’. Virat Kohli. He took the retirement; he should have been made the captain for the England series. He was told that you are not in our scheme of things as far as captaincy goes. He said, ‘Okay, tata, bye-bye.’ He doesn’t have a shortage of money. Babar should not have accepted the decision to bat at No.4. If I were his close aide, I would have told him to refuse. You just threw him under the bus,” he added. Kohli had announced his retirement from Test cricket in May last year. However, there has been no official confirmation that the decision was linked to captaincy matters. Following the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Kohli, Shubman Gill was appointed India’s Test captain. Under his leadership, India went on to draw the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against England. Meanwhile, former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal disagreed with Basit’s view, arguing that players rarely challenge team management, especially when they are struggling for form. “No player dares to go against the team management. I have just seen Younis Khan being adamant about his position. As a player, you just cannot say that. You will be thrown into the sidelines if you say such things,” said Akmal. “When the form is not there, no player says such things. Before the Champions Trophy, his form was not there. He had left the captaincy. Big players even agree to such things. The form is very important. When form is not there, a batter would even agree to bat at No.8,” he added.
