Babar Azam’s persistent lack of huge scores continued in the course of the ODI sequence towards West Indies, which ended with a catastrophic 202-run defeat in Trinidad on Tuesday. Surrounded by three geese within the top-order, Babar mustered solely 9 runs as Pakistan have been ultimately shot down for a paltry 92 in a 295-run chase.
Pakistan batter Ahmed Shehzad has highlighted the constant comparisons with India legend Virat Kohli as a main motive behind Babar’s prolonged century-drought.
“When every part was going nicely, you have been operating campaigns evaluating gamers. Now that the performances should not coming, you’re saying ‘don’t examine two gamers’. Why not? Virat Kohli’s comparability can’t be made with anybody on the earth. He’s a legend of this era, a job mannequin. You can not examine him even with MS Dhoni. Dhoni might have been an important captain, however as a batter, cricketer, and athlete, Kohli stands alone. Nobody ought to be in contrast with anybody as a result of it’s unfair and it provides additional stress, which we at the moment are seeing on Babar Azam,” Shehzad was quoted as saying by GeoSuper.
Regardless of surpassing Kohli’s T20I run tally final yr as he moved as much as 4223 runs, solely behind former India captain Rohit Sharma, Babar was axed from the Pakistan squad within the shortest format.
72 innings with out a century
Since his century towards Nepal within the Asia Cup 2023, Babar has gone 72 innings throughout all codecs with out reaching 100. Throughout this era, he’s scored 2,139 runs at a median of 31.45, with 18 half-centuries.
His wrestle for a century is especially notable in Take a look at cricket the place he has gone three years with out a three-figure rating. Since his final Take a look at hundred towards New Zealand in December 2022, he has averaged simply 23.60, scoring 590 runs in 25 innings.
With scores of 47, 0 and 9 within the West Indies ODI sequence, the previous Pakistan captain additionally slipped down from the highest 2 of the ICC ODI batting rankings. India skipper Rohit displaced Babar to take second place within the newest rankings, with Shubman Gill main the charts within the format.