During the Bangladesh Premier League match between Rangpur Riders and Durdanto Dhaka, Riders batsman and former Pakistan captain Babar Azam lost his cool on the ground. Babar had a heated argument with Dhaka goalkeeper Irfan Sukkur, who was trying to sledge him on the ground. The incident took place during the 13th over of the first innings.
Durdanto Dhaka bowler Arafat Sunny sacked Rangpur Riders Batsman Nurul Hasan in the third ball of the 13th over for 26 runs off 24 balls. During the break, Babar Azam was sledged by Dhaka wicketkeeper Irfan Sukkur, Babar became enraged with him and engaged in a heated exchange of words with the opposing fielder. Babar is always known for the calm and calm nature of him, in which he has never fought in the international cricket field, however, Babar could not keep calm and got involved in a verbal fight.
Watch: Babar Azam gets involved in verbal fight during BPL
WTF 👀???
So now you want to fight him?
Furious Babar 🥵 #BabarAzam pic.twitter.com/HKjZeXPIW1
-Sami Nadeem (@Sami_ullah_1234) January 27, 2024
What happened to Babar Azam there? 🤯🤯🤯 #BPL2024 pic.twitter.com/gSKPqCQr9Y
– Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) January 27, 2024
The referees tried to calm down Babar Azam, while a player from the opposite camp also came and chatted with Babar. However, this had no effect on Babar’s performance as he played 62 innings off 46 balls, which included five fours and a six.
Rangpur Riders posted a score of 183/8 in the first innings and gave Durdanto Dhaka a tough target. The Cyclists lost their first wicket in the form of Brandon King for 20 runs when he was dismissed by Dhaka bowler Taskin Ahmed. Rony Talukdar couldn’t do much either and had to return to the dressing room to make 11 runs off 7 balls.
Captain Nurul Hasan first added 50 runs for the third wicket with Babar Azam and after his departure, Babar put on 39 off 21 balls with Azmatullah Omarzai for the fifth wicket. After Babar’s dismissal, Omarzai added 35 runs off 14 balls with Shamin Hossain and played a cameo innings of 32 runs off 15 balls.
Rangpur Riders will be out to win the match and claim their second victory of the tournament. The runners are at 5th position with 1 win in 2 games while Durdanto Dhaka is at 4th place.
The year 2023 was not good for Babar Azam either as a batsman or as a captain. Babar failed to score runs in international cricket for Pakistan and also did not play to his potential. Babar struggled to score runs against quality teams like India, Australia and England, while he used to score centuries against low-ranked teams like Nepal.
Babar Azam’s lack of performance with the bat also raised major concerns for Pakistan in international cricket. Pakistan were poor in the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup, where they lost against low-ranked teams. Furthermore, Babar resigned from captaincy in all three formats after the debacle at CWC 2023.
However, there was a lot of improvement in Babar Azam’s performance as he failed to convert his deliveries into hundreds.