Varun Aaron Blasts Pakistan’s Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan for T20 World Cup Failures

June 18, 2024 0 1020

Varun Aaron criticized Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan for failing to deliver in crucial matches against strong teams in the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Former cricketer Varun Aaron has criticized Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan for their poor performances in the 2024 T20 World Cup, noting that they failed to lead Pakistan in crucial matches. Despite being the only players in the team to score over 50 runs, their efforts were not enough to prevent Pakistan’s early exit before the Super Eights.

Babar Azam scored 44 runs against the USA, and 33 and an unbeaten 32 against Canada and Ireland respectively, but only managed 13 runs in Pakistan’s six-run loss to India, where he was dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah.

Aaron highlighted that Pakistan heavily depends on these two players, but they did not rise to the occasion. He contrasted this with Indian players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Hardik Pandya, who consistently perform under pressure in big tournaments.

“They are dependent on Babar and Rizwan, and both Babar and Rizwan let Pakistan down. There are talks about Babar, especially, before every big tournament, but Babar Azam never scores runs in a big tournament against a big team. Your main player needs to stand up against big teams,” Aaron said on Star Sports.

“If you see India, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya always put their hands up and say that they will play against big teams and take the pressure moments. I think no batter in the Pakistan lineup wants pressure moments. They are running away from pressure. They will have to face pressure head-on if Pakistan cricket has to progress,” he added.

In the same discussion, Aditya Tare pointed out that the below-par strike rates of Babar and Mohammad Rizwan are detrimental to Pakistan’s performance. Despite being Pakistan’s best T20 batters, their strike rates did not exceed 130 even before the World Cup. Babar has scored 4,145 runs at a strike rate of 129.08 in 116 T20I innings, while Rizwan has 3,313 runs in 89 T20I innings with a strike rate of 126.45.

“As a top-order player, that can harm your team a lot. If we see world-class teams like Australia, India and England, their openers have strike rates close to 150. However, if you are batting at a strike rate of 125 as an opener, you are putting your team on the back foot,” Tare added.