The decision to push Babur Azam Dropping to No. 4 during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup sparked much debate in Pakistan, and the experiment ultimately failed. The former Pakistan captain endured a difficult campaign throughout the 20-team tournament, struggling to get pace in the middle order. As the competition progressed, the situation worsened. Babar was not sent in to bat in Pakistan’s group stage win against Namibia. Later, they were also left out of the Super 8 fixture against Sri Lanka, a match where the Green Shirts needed to win by at least 65 runs to keep their semi-final hopes alive.
Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali has now criticized how the situation was handled, saying Babar should have strongly opposed the decision to lift the order. According to Basit, the batsman should have challenged head coach Mike Hessen instead of accepting the role. Basit also made the reference while talking on the ‘Game Plan’ show. Virat Kohli As an example, discuss how top players sometimes take a strong stance. Babur Azam and Fakhr Zaman There is no sound. How did he agree to bat in the middle order?” Basit said on the ‘Game Plan’ show. “I have only one example. Virat Kohli was not made captain, they said, ‘OK bye’. Virat Kohli. He retired, he should have been made captain for the England series. He was told that you are not in our scheme as far as captaincy is concerned. They said, ‘Okay, Tata, bye.’ He does not lack money. Babar should not have accepted the decision to bat at number 4. If I were his close associate, I would tell him to refuse. You threw him under the bus,” he added. Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket in May last year. However, there has been no official confirmation that the decision was linked to captaincy matters. After the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Kohli, Shibman Gul was appointed as India’s Test captain. Under his leadership, India drew the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy against England. Meanwhile, former wicketkeeper batsman of Pakistan Kamran Akmal Basit disagreed with Basit’s approach, saying that players rarely challenge team management, especially when they are struggling for form. “No player dares to go against the team management, I have just seen. Younis Khan Stand your ground. As a player, you can’t just say that. If you say such things, you will be thrown aside,” said Akmal. When there is no form, no player talks like that, he had no form before the Champions Trophy, he had given up the captaincy, even big players agree with such things, form is very important, when there is no form, a batsman even agrees to bat at No. 8.
