Former Pakistan opener Salman Butt has come in support of under-fire Babar Azam after the Shan Masood-led lost the two-match Test series against Bangladesh by 2-0. Azam returned with scores 0 and 22 in the first Test match against Bangladesh and failed to deliver the goods for the team.
The right-hander had the rub of the green as he was dropped for naught by Litton Das in the second essay but he could not make the most of his second life. Eventually, Pakistan was stunned by 10 wickets in the opening Test.
The flamboyant batter has been struggling to find his form in the recent past and as a result, he has dropped to ninth spot in the ICC rankings for Test batters.
Furthermore, Azam could not turn the tables in the second Test match as he could only manage scores of 31 and 11 against the Tigers. Butt said Babar Azam has been Pakistan’s best batter in white-ball formats.
Salman Butt said on his YouTube Channel, “Why is everyone asking me why I support Babar Azam? Has he scored 500 because of my support or have I asked people to vote for Babar? Is there any doubt that he has been the best player in Pakistan in the last four years? Pakistan don’t play a lot of Test cricket, in white-ball cricket, he has been in the top three in both formats.
“He has scored the most runs and there’s nobody else in the team near him. If you don’t support the one who has been the standout performer and want him to be removed, what do you have? If you have someone better, bring him and make him play.”
Butt added that while Babar Azam has failed to deliver consistently in the red-ball format, other Pakistan batters also haven’t been at their best. It has been over 650 days since Azam has scored a Test fifty.
“Yes, I admit Babar hasn’t lived up to the expectations in Test cricket. But is that the real concern? Babar is not doing well, replace him, but what are the others doing? Babar didn’t score, but what about the others?”
Butt recalled that people started calling Babar Azam the king but he wasn’t impressed with his captaincy despite his purple patch.
“Wasn’t I the only one to talk about Babar’s captaincy? When he was scoring a lot of runs, people started calling him things like king. However, I was one of those people who said that he was still behind the top players. When someone is scoring, everyone starts backing him. True backing is supporting someone in his downfall.”
Babar Azam will look to bounce back strongly in the upcoming matches.
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