Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes Pakistan is a more stable and cohesive team under Babar Azam’s leadership compared to Shaheen Afridi’s.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) faced a challenging period after the team’s poor performance in last year’s ODI World Cup in India. Babar Azam stepped down as captain across all formats, and Shaheen Shah Afridi took over the T20I captaincy, sparking rumors of tension between the two players. A few months later, the PCB experienced an administrative shake-up, leading to Babar’s reinstatement as Pakistan’s white-ball captain.
Now, under Babar’s leadership, Pakistan is aiming for a second T20 World Cup title. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes Pakistan is a more stable team with Babar at the helm. Ponting observed that while some top players struggle with captaincy, Babar seems to have adjusted well.
“Captaincy just sits well with some people and it doesn’t sit well with others. We’ve seen it through the years that some of the best players that have ever played the game have not necessarily made the best captains and the thing that makes some of the very best players so good is how focused they are on what they need to do to get better and to be the best and find a way every day to get better,” Ponting told ICC.
“And when you are captain, you can’t do that. You’ve got to actually compartmentalize what you’re doing, look after your own game, look after all the guys around you. So, some guys can manage that better than others,” he added.
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Initially, Babar’s performance dipped, but he has since learned to balance his own game with his leadership duties, making Pakistan a stronger and more cohesive side.
“I reckon Babar, when he first started, I had that feeling that he… because if you look at his record, his numbers went down on the back of it. So I think he might have learned a bit from that,” Ponting continued.
“Shaheen didn’t set the world on fire as a leader either, so I think going back into a World Cup it just looks like a more settled team when you’ve got someone like Babar as captain rather than Afridi,” he concluded.
Pakistan will start their campaign against the hosts, the USA, on Thursday in Texas.
Last Updated on June 5, 2024
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