The numbers suggest that Babar Azam is not one-dimensional: Rohan Gavaskar

The Paksitan captain Babar Azam recently was heavily criticised by a lot of fans for his strike rate in T20I cricket. With an average of just 11.33, the 27-year-old had the strike rate of just 107.93 in the recently concluded Asia Cup. His form and strike rate however improved against England in the ongoing seven-match T20I series and with that, the discussions have now been ruled out.

There was a point when Azam was considered to be a one-dimensional player but former India cricketer Rohan Gavaskar dismissed the critics and focused more on his stats to explain how he offers much more. Rohan spoke about the way Babar change his gears and how it helped the team in T20I matches.

“To call him a one-dimensional player is a little harsh because he is a quality-quality player. And if anything, the numbers suggest that he is not one-dimensional. The fact that he can change gears and you look at his numbers from the first innings to the second innings. In the first innings, his strike rate is about 125, second innings his strike rate is about 137 which shows that he has the ability to change gears. I think it is a mental mindset with Babar. Fear of failure. I don’t mean fear of failure as a batter,” said the former cricketer exclusively on SPORTS18’s daily sports news show ‘SPORTS OVER THE TOP’.

I could be wrong here but Babar Azam feels that the Pakistan team revolves around his batting: Rohan Gavaskar

Babar Azam has struggled to get going whenever Pakistan batted first in the match. The stats speak for themselves and Rohan Gavaskar was quick to spot that. He feels that Babar takes extra pressure to stay till the end of the match and that plays a massive role in his overall strike rate. 

“I could be wrong here; he (Babar Azam) feels that the Pakistan team revolves around his batting. So, when he is batting first, he feels that he’s got to stay long because if he fails the team might fail and that can sometimes shackle a player. And that’s what happens to him when they are batting first," said Gavaskar on the same show.

"When they are batting second, when the target is in front of him, he is just phenomenal because he knows how he needs to pace his innings. He knows at what strike rate he needs to go and how he needs to sort of chase that target down. When he has got that target in front of him, he is just phenomenal. So, for me to call him a one-dimensional player, it is a little harsh. But I think sometimes it’s just the mental mindset which he may need to change when they are batting first,” the 46-year-old added.