Watch: Babar Azam shuts down reporter brutely when he asked ‘to leave Test captaincy’
Pakistan captain Babar Azam apart from the losses and the winless run in Test matches at home has also copped some difficult questions from the reporters recently.
Babar has had a forgettable 2022 as a Test captain as not only Pakistan failed to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final but couldn’t win a single Test at home against Australia, England and New Zealand.
Now, some selection calls in the past have come to hurt Babar after former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, after not playing Test cricket for almost four years made a successful comeback to the national side in the longest format.
During the post series press conference, a reporter mercilessly questioned Pakistani skipper,
“You’re on your way to becoming one of the batting greats. But players like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, and Saeed Anwar… were great batters but couldn’t be great captains. We couldn’t win a single Test in 8 attempts on home soil, do you think you should leave Test captaincy so that your target to become one of the greatest batters of the game becomes more easy?”
“We are playing white ball cricket right now, Tests are over. If you have any question on the white-ball series, you ask that,” Babar replied sharply.
Watch Babar Azam speaking for himself in the Press conference:
The journalist asked, “Usne Pakistan ki izzat bachaayi. Aap nhi samajte ki usko England ke series par bhi chance milna chahiye tha? Aapkp pachtawa hai ki wo char saal ke liye team par nahi tha? (He saved Pakistan’s pride. Do you think he should have got a chance in the series vs England and do you regret that he wasn’t part of the team for four years?)”
Sarfaraz Ahmed was in resurgent form as he clobbered a century to rescue Pakistan in the recently-concluded second Test match vs New Zealand, in Karachi. The wicketkeeper-batter hammered 118 runs off 176 balls, packed with nine fours and a six, as the hosts drew the second Test on Day 5. With the match ending in a draw, the series also ended in a draw with the first fixture facing a similar fate.
Another journalist asked Babar Azam if he regrets not giving opportunities to Sarfaraz Ahmed earlier.
“Nahi, mujhe koi pachtawa nahi (No. I don’t have any regrets)”, Babar simply replied.
Recently, even PCB interim chief selector Shahid Afridi revealed in a press conference that Mohammad Rizwan was still Pakistan’s main wicketkeeper in both T20Is and ODIs, which could dash Sarfaraz’ hopes of making it into the World Cup squad. Sarfaraz has not been named in the squad for the three-match ODI series vs New Zealand.
“I’m very happy that Saifi has made a comeback and given such an amazing performance, but Mohammad Rizwan is available and he is our main wicket-keeper in both T20Is and ODIs”, Afridi said.
“God forbid if Rizwan gets injured or if he’s tired, we’ll then consider other options. Let’s not mix someone’s Test performance with that of limited overs”, he further added.
Moreover, Sarfaraz was the player of the series scoring 335 runs in four innings. Pakistan will hope to begin well against the No. 1 ranked ODI team in the three-match series starting on Monday, January 9 in Karachi.
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