Babar Azam's Pakistan, so near yet so far from the T20 World Cup trophy suffered a massive heartbreak at the hands of Jos Buttler's England on November 13, 2022. They had almost pulled things back in their favour as Naseem Shah steamed in and rattled Ben Stokes with his overs, but England persisted and emerged victorious on the grandest stage of them all, the T20 World Cup stage. The boys in green were heavily relying on their skipper Babar Azam who was the leading run scorer in the 2021 edition, but things drastically changed and went downhill as far as his performances are concerned.
Babar Azam, who many believe is a legend in the making struggled on Australian pitches and especially against spin bowling. The Pakistan skipper looked far from his best and this certainly cost Pakistan in the long run. Babar was wary of the Adil Rashid challenge, but he certainly did not look prepared at all. On the other hand, England's main man Rashid had a stellar World Cup. He did not pick up as many wickets as he might have wanted to, but he maintained his economy at 6 and foxed almost everybody he was up against. Rashid made some notable changes to his bowling, especially in his pace, and has now opened up on how he had planned against Babar.
Rashid explained his plan and said:
Babar's googly, I don't if it was the turning point of the match but I was definitely getting some turn. I was bowling a bit more slow today and got the big leggies (leg breaks) going my way. Normally I bowl a bit quicker and a bit shorter, that was my game plan for me and that's the way I bowl.
Much before Rashid opened up on how he managed to fox the Pakistan skipper, former Pakistan player Shoaib Malik pointed out an issue with Babar's batting technique. Now Danish Kaneria, former Pakistan leggie has expressed his concerns with Babar's batting and has said that he doesn't feel that Azam is a world-class batter.
ALSO READ | Wasim Akram defends Shaheen Afridi, vents his anger out on random Pakistan fan
Shoaib Malik said:
The Pakistan batters did not try to play the field and conditions. They were slogging and not rotating strikes. I request Babar to work towards his technique to play the googly as it will help him take his game to the next level.
Danish Kaneria said:
Babar can't be touted as a world-class batter till the time he learns how to read a spinner. Adil Rashid fooled Babar Azam by bowling a big googly after having bowled several leg breaks. How could he not read it from the hand? While he is up there in the ICC rankings and a lot of people are in awe of his batting, he got completely exposed today.
Pakistan will face England in a home Test series next which starts in December.
