Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has come under the scanner for his captaincy after the hosts were subjected to their first-ever Test series whitewash at home against England. Whether it’s his tactics or the team selection, nothing has worked for Babar the captain as they were blown away by England, who played aggressive, smart and calculative Test cricket to finish a memorable tour of Pakistan after 17 years.
Ahead of the Day 4 of the Karachi Test when England required just 55 runs to win the game, former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria urged the fans to stop comparing Babar with Virat Kohli saying that the former Indian captain and his successor Rohit Sharma are big players and no one can be compared to them.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Kaneria said, “People should stop comparing Babar Azam to Virat Kohli. The likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are very big players. Pakistan have nobody in their team who can be compared to them. If you make them talk, they will be a king. When you ask them to produce results, they’ll be zero.”
Kaneria further said that Babar is clueless as a captain in Test matches and should leave his ego and let somebody else lead the side. Kaneria mentioned that Babar had a good chance to learn captaincy ropes in the longest format looking at his counterpart Stokes and England coach Brendon McCullum.
“Babar Azam is a big zero as captain. He doesn’t deserve to lead the team. He is not capable of leading the team, especially when it comes to Test cricket. He had a good chance of learning captaincy by looking at Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum during the series. Or, he could have kept his ego aside and asked Sarfaraz Ahmed how to captain, who was sidelined as soon as Babar came into the team,” said Kaneria.
Pakistan, on the other hand, don’t have much time on their hands before the New Zealand series and will need herculean effort to turn things around in just 6 days’ time.