Aakash Chopra believes that if Babar Azam performs poorly against India in Pakistan’s World Cup 2023 match, his captaincy may be in jeopardy.
On Saturday, October 14, the archrivals of the subcontinent will square off at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium. In the match against the Men in Blue, Babar will want to make history by being the first captain of Pakistan to win an ODI World Cup.
In a video he posted on his YouTube account to preview the match, Chopra expressed his opinion that Babar must continue to score runs in order to be captain.
He said:
“I feel Babar’s captaincy is at stake if it doesn’t happen here because scoring runs is necessary and you haven’t scored runs. The neighbors keep saying King Babar but the king is one who has that status.” Chopra said.
The Pakistan skipper can only be regarded as a great player if he gets runs against India on a significant occasion, the former India opener pointed out.
He clarified:
“You get that status only when you score runs in a big match against a big team. In India, if you don’t score runs against Pakistan, Australia or England, we don’t consider him a player at all. The same goes for Babar Azam. He needs to score runs against this team.”
In the current World Cup, Babar has only mustered a pitiful 15 runs in his two innings. In six ODI innings against India, the skillful batsman has amassed 168 runs at a pitiful average of 28.00 and has yet to register a fifty.
Aakash Chopra pointed out that Babar Azam’s leadership has also frequently fallen short. As he noted:
“Honestly speaking, if I do man-to-man marking, his captaincy has looked extremely ordinary in this entire tournament and before that as well. He looks slightly clueless quite a few times about who to bowl, when and how much. It was the same story in the Asia Cup as well. So I feel he will be under tremendous pressure.”
Chopra continued by saying that Haris Rauf has to return to his peak for Pakistan in the bowling department, given Shaheen Shah Afridi’s mild finger swell. In conclusion, he expressed his opinion that India would win if they used the new ball with a little more caution when playing Hasan Ali.
