Former Indian opening batter criticises Babar Azam’s captaincy skills
Babar Azam (Source: Twitter)
Former Indian cricketer, Aakash Chopra recently analysed the game between India and Pakistan held on 2 September at Kandy, Sri Lanka. The match was abandoned after the first innings due to a constant heavy downpour, which led to the game being tied. Pakistan dismissed India’s batting order for 266 runs at the end of 48.5 overs.
Aakash Chopra believes Babar Azam’s poor captaincy decision of restricting fast bowlers for the latest stages of the game and rotating his spinners for 21 overs gave India the way to put runs on the board. Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya scored 82 and 87 runs respectively taking India to a decent total of 266 runs. They’ll next play against Nepal on September 4 at the same venue.
Aakash Chopra on Babar Azam’s captaincy skills
“Babar Azam got his spinners to bowl 21 overs when the opposing team was 66/4. You had 30 overs of fast bowling. I think he missed a huge trick and because of that, he allowed India to prosper” said Aakash Chopra. “It’s good, we don’t mind, but Pakistan should actually look inwards and say that there was a captaincy error. The fist was closed and you opened it and when you try to grab it again, it becomes slightly late” added Aakash Chopra.
“He went towards spin very early and stayed with spin for a very long time – defensive captaincy. He was thinking who will bowl the 45th or 48th over and doing all that, Naseem Shah wouldn’t have got to bowl his entire quota of overs. One of the fast bowlers wouldn’t have bowled an over if they had bowled the entire 50 overs” said Aakash. “So obviously you missed a trick. If you have pushed down the opposing team, the Indian team were stuck, then you should crush them. Then bowl them out for 150. At least try to finish it in 37 overs or so. So bowl 30 overs of fast bowling. You should have kept on bowling the fast bowlers continuously from one end”, he concluded.
