Being the leader of the pack, Babar Azam was expected to play a sensible and sensational knock on the night of the finals at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Following his brilliant half-century against New Zealand in the semi-finals, it was only expected the player to step up but that didn’t happen when Pakistan took on England on Sunday, November 13.
Opening the batting, Azam managed to score only 32 off 28 balls and his slow approach eventually put the Pakistan team under pressure. His opening partner Mohammad Rizwan too was dismissed early and thus, Pakistan lacked composure in the middle. Two-time World Champion, Harbajan Singh pointed out Babar Azam’s approach against England and it eventually put the Men in Green in trouble.
“Pakistan will be disappointed with their batting effort. They didn’t take their chances early on and Babar was pretty ordinary in my book. You are the captain of this ship and you cannot bat like that. 28 balls and you are just scoring 32 runs. You are putting your team in deep deep trouble. They couldn’t come over it,” said Harbajan Singh while talking to Star Sports after the match.
Misbah-ul-Haq points out Pakistan’s tactical mistakes in the final
The former Pakistan international was very unimpressed with Pakistan’s strategy in the finals. He believes that Shadab Khan should have been promoted up in the order and definitely ahead of Iftikhar Ahmed.
“In the 12th over, Babar was dismissed after we managed to get the momentum in the match and had properly delivered that punch to England. Shadab should have batted next because of match-ups. You have to be proactive, you cannot put everything to faith. It is silly not to use all the data available which clearly says that one of your best batsman against that type of bowling…and he had another over left. Iftikhar could have come in late and hit those shots square of the wicket. Then Shaheen’s injury was a big blow.” said Misbah while talking to A Sports.
