Houston [USA], February 25 (ANI): Former Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria came hard at premier Pakistani batters Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan for their poor performances in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, slamming the former for his lack of “intent” against big oppositions and piling up runs majorly against smaller nations.
It was a Champions Trophy to forget for Babar and Rizwan, who had forgettable outings against Bangladesh and arch-rivals India, scoring 87 runs (with a half-century) and 49 runs respectively in two matches so far. While Babar’s sluggish knock of 64 in 90 balls against New Zealand while chasing 321 generated massive criticism, Rizwan repeated the same conservative approach with a sluggish 46 in 77 balls against India, which though helped Pakistan stitch a century stand, it could only take them to a final score of 241 runs. The result of such sluggishness is: Pakistan knocked out of their home tournament within a matter of five days.
Speaking to ANI about the performances of the batters, Kaneria said, “Babar has not scored runs for so long But when he scores, it is against Zimbabwe or against smaller teams. If he scores against big teams. So, there is no intent at all.”
“There is no depth in the batting. Salman Agha and Khushdil Shah make some contributions sometimes. Saud Shakeel is a technically correct batter. But Rizwan’s bat seems to have stopped working. When the Champions Trophy squad was announced, one could see it getting eliminated pretty soon out of the tournament,” he added.
Babar has not scored an international century since August 2023, when he scored 151 against Nepal in Asia Cup 2023 in an ODI. Since then, he has played 24 ODIs and scored 753 runs at an average of 37.65 with seven fifties, at a relatively conservative strike rate of 78.68.
From 2024-25, Rizwan has played 14 ODIs, scoring 484 runs at a healthy average of 53.78 with a century and two fifties in 12 innings, but his strike rate of 76.46 is way below his career strike rate, which is almost 87. This conservative brand of cricket has no doubt hurt Pakistan cricket.
Speaking on if Rizwan should persist as the white-ball captain, Kaneria said that he should persist since there are plenty of captains in the dressing room already with experience, such as Babar, Rizwan and Shaheen.
“When you change so many captains, make so many changes and do not show faith, the question arises, why does the board appoint one as a captain?.” he added.
But Kaneria also alleged that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) needs their captains to be “yes-men” and skippers like Rizwan are around as captains because of this. He also said that it is very likely that focus will now shift on left-handed batter Saud Shakeel to become the next captain, but he said that a player who is performing well currently should not burdened with captaincy.
The former pacer said that if Rizwan decides to step down, then the veteran Fakhar Zaman can enter the conversations of being a captain.
“He is fearless and will ask you a few questions. He brings the X-Factor. Yesterday (during the Pakistan-India match), Pakistan did not have him (as he is ruled out of Champions Trophy due to injury). It has to be accepted he is an X-Factor player. He is not given much encouragement because it will cause Babar and Rizwan’s shops to be shut. But he is really hard-working and courageous as a cricketer,” he added.
Speaking about a change in way Pakistan select their players, Kaneria said that the focus should be on the committee giving players one year time and within that time frame, evaluating their performances very honestly.
“If they do not produce the results, they can be asked to pack their bags and leave. There should be such strict guidelines. But here, they make teams based on friendship and PR. When you make a team for your country, you do not think of yourself. But here, everyone is sitting, running their shop. Score small runs and keep working. Things do not work this way. If you work like this, you will also get results like this (Pakistan being out of CT),” he concluded. (ANI)
