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Asia Cup: Babar Azam, from hero to villain after one defeat

How does a captain become responsible for a fast bowler getting injured?

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Pakistan captain Babar Azam reacts after his dismissal by India's Hardik Pandya. — AFP

By Anis Sajan

Published: Tue 12 Sep 2023, 10:22 PM

Pakistan went down to India by a huge margin of 225 runs in the Super 4 game when it was expected that it might be a tight contest.

India dominated Pakistan from the first over of their batting and put on a mammoth 356. Their bowlers were then right on the money with Kuldeep Yadav picking up five wickets to hand Pakistan their second-worst defeat in ODI history.

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After the massive defeat, and as it happens in India-Pakistan clashes, all fingers were pointed at the losing skipper and this time it was poor Babar Azam who had to bear the brunt from all corners of Pakistan media and fans.

The first question everyone asked was why did Babar Azam field first? There was rain in the air, and it was a correct decision as the Duckworth-Lewis method generally benefits the team batting second.

And mind you. in the first game, Shaheen Shah Afridi had given them an ideal start by knocking over Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

This time too Pakistan bowler Naseem Shah created two chances which Pakistani fielders did not grab. And it was the price they had to pay heavily as both Rohit and Shubman GIll took them to the cleaners by putting on 120 runs in double quick time to set the platform for the innings.

And as expected the rain did come after 24 overs and had it been a reduced 20 overs game happening on the same night, Pakistan would have chased 176 in that many overs which any team would fancy.

But the rain did not relent and on the next day, Pakistan lost the services of their main bowler Harris Rauf and Kohli and KL Rahul took full advantage of it to put on a mammoth 233-run partnership.

How does a captain become responsible for a fast bowler getting injured? How can Babar be responsible for it?

In the first game, his spinners had let him down and he had picked an extra seamer in Faheem Ashraf who bowled well until he went for plenty in his last over.

But because his batsman did not turn up along with his failure, it was Babar who was being held responsible.

Mind you batting under lights with Jasprit Bumrah at his very best was not easy. And with all Indian pacers making the ball talk, and it was a tall ask for the Pakistan batsman.

Yes, you could argue that the Pakistani batsmen could have put up a fight, but Kuldeep Yadav was on song and they just caved in.

Babar is the same captain who has made Pakistan the number-one team in ODI. This is the same captain who is the number one batsman in ODI cricket.

Babar has 19 ODI hundreds in just 107 matches and is the fastest to reach there with an average close to 60. He has been the linchpin of Pakistan's batting for the last five years.

You don’t bag an ICC Player of the Month award for the third time and get rated as highly as Kohli without being special.

One bad game does not make Babar a bad captain or a player, but sadly losing to your arch-rivals is what makes the media, and the fans vent out their anger.

But the same people would have changed their words if the result had gone the other way. You either become a hero or a villain in sport and sadly for Babar, he had to be the villain because of one result despite being a hero for the last five years.

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Anis Sajan

Published: Tue 12 Sep 2023, 10:22 PM

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