Discarded Pakistan batsman Ahmed Shehzad feels that Babar Azam has been feeling mentally drained after receiving so much criticism from around the world in the last few months.
Shehzad admits that Babar has been playing cricket regularly for the past few years, so he is mentally exhausted.
Babar Azam is currently going through the worst moment of his cricket career. Pakistan’s star batsman had a disappointing series against Bangladesh recently in which he scored just 64 runs in 4 innings at an average of 16.
Not only his batting but also his captaincy is in grave danger. Babar is currently the captain of Pakistan in white-ball cricket, but the team’s performance has only gone downhill. At the 2024 T20 World Cup in June, Pakistan failed to make it past the first stage of the tournament.
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Ahmed Shehzad feels that Babar Azam is mentally exhausted
In a recent video, Ahmed Shehzad spoke about the issues with Babar that have severely affected his performance. Shehzad admits that Babar has been playing regularly for the last few years and this has taken its toll on him and he is now mentally exhausted.
“After removing Babar Azam from the Test captaincy, it has been decided that he will also be removed from the white-ball captaincy, according to Geo News. His performance as a captain and as a player is impressive,” Shehzad said.
“Now the question arises as to what is the real problem. Is Babar Azam the captain or Babar Azam the player? In my opinion, the problem is not his captaincy. He has been playing cricket regularly for the last 5-6 years and now he is mentally exhausted,” he added.
Recently, Geo News reported that Babar Azam is likely to be removed as Pakistan captain for the ODIs and T20Is. Wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan is seen as his replacement.
Ahmed Shehzad questions Babar Azam’s physical condition
Ahmed Shehzad also feels that all players can take criticism and that Babar’s ability has come to an end. He also raised questions about Babar Azam’s fitness level.
“He (Babar Azam) has been the captain of Pakistan for a long time, he has led Pakistan in four World Cups and two Asian Cups. He has come under a lot of scrutiny. Everyone can take criticism. At a certain point, when the harassment becomes too intense, your mind stops working and you feel under pressure,” Shehzad said.
“If you’ve made mistakes yourself and haven’t maintained your physical standards, things become even more difficult,” he added.
Babar’s captaincy has been under scrutiny since the 2023 ODi World Cup in India. Some of his decisions to remove out-of-form players from the Pakistan squad have backfired and the entire blame has been placed on Babar.
Pakistan’s next white-ball series will be in November when they tour Australia for three ODIs and three T20Is. A decision on Babar’s future as Pakistan captain is likely to be taken soon.