Babar should leave captaincy after the T20 World Cup: Kamran Akmal

With two back-to-back defeats at the hands of India and Zimbabwe, Pakistan are now struggling to find their mojo in the ongoing T20 World Cup. The Men in Green are being heavily criticised by many of their former cricketers as they (former cricketers) find plenty of faults in the decisions taken by the team management and the selection committee and also complained about fielding a relatively weak side in the tournament.

Wahab Riaz, who has picked up a total of 237 wickets for Pakistan in international cricket became the latest cricketer to question the Babar Azam-led side. He pointed out Pakistan’s lack of depth in T20I cricket at the moment and also drew a comparison between India’s preparation and Pakistan’s preparation ahead of the mega tournament.

“If you have a strong system, people won't really complain. There should be a proper selection process; for example, no matter if it's (Mohammad) Amir or Umar Gul or Shoaib Akhtar or Sohail Tanvir, if your criteria is to judge via domestic performances, you have to see whether they've performed well there or not. If they have, and if they are fit, they should play,” said Wahab as quoted by Hindustan Times while he appeared on 24 News HD.

“I'll give you an example from India. Rishabh Pant is India's best wicketkeeper-batter since Dhoni, he has hundreds in England and Australia. If he was in Pakistan, would he sit outside in a World Cup match? No chance. India kept him out for Dinesh Karthik. They know Pant is a good cricketer, but they also know that they need a finisher. That's the way to go,” the 37-year-old added.

Babar should leave the captaincy after the T20 World Cup: Kamran Akmal

One of the cousins of Pakistan captain (Babar), Kamran Akmal advised him to leave captaincy after the T20 World Cup 2022. The 40-year-old believes that Babar should focus more on his batting as captaincy can put him under a lot of pressure. He also said that the 27-year-old should follow Virat Kohli’s path in order to establish his worth.

“Being an elder brother, I want to say to Babar that he should leave the captaincy after the T20 World Cup,” Akmal said on ARY News.

“If you want 22000-25,000 runs from him, you have to play him purely as a player or else he would be under pressure. If Babar or his father understands this, he should step down. He should focus on his cricket like Virat Kohli. Because I can't see any other batsman of this quality in our set-up. Pakistan cricket would suffer greatly if Babar doesn't play to his full potential,” he added.

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