Rashid Latif on Babar Azam: Former Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam is struggling with very bad form these days. He has also flopped badly in the Test series against Bangladesh. This is also the reason why Babar has now come down a lot in the ICC Test rankings. Meanwhile, former Pakistani cricketer Rashid Latif has also said a big thing about Babar’s mind.
In the first innings of the second Test against Bangladesh, Babar scored 31 runs off 77 balls. Babar did not score a single fifty in the last 15 Test innings. During this period, he scored 31, 22, 0, 23, 26, 41, 1, 14, 21, 39, 24, 13, 27, 24 and 14 runs.
Let us tell you that Babar has recently suffered a loss in the ICC Test rankings for batsmen. He has slipped from the third position to the ninth position and this is due to his poor form. Pakistani wicketkeeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan is out of the top-10.
‘Babur’s mind is not at peace’
Rashid Latif talked to Sports Tak about Babar’s technique and poor form. He also said that Babar’s mind is not calm. He is like Virender Sehwag, whose form is very difficult to regain once he loses it.
On the question of Babar’s form and his captaincy, Latif said, ‘The game of cricket is a mind game. His mind is not calm. He knows what mistake he has made. He should not have taken the captaincy from Shaheen. He had refused to take the captaincy but he was deliberately given the captaincy. After this he lost the World Cup and he came under more pressure. Many allegations were also made against Babar Azam but all of them are wrong.’
Latif further said, ‘Babar Azam is not focused on the game and he is paying attention to outside. This is the reason why he is not focused on cricket. His shot selection has deteriorated. Because of T20 and ODI, you have started hitting more shots. You are not able to understand Test cricket. His mind is not able to work.’
Babar is making mistakes in practice
He said, ‘At present, too much practice is done. The practice is going wrong. All of them practice with side arm. There is a delay of two nano seconds in side arm. When you see in practice, you will know that these people connect the ball thrown with side arm in practice but are unable to do so in the match. Because there is no swing in side arm whereas there is swing with hands. This is a problem all over the world.’
Latif gave an example of Babar’s technique and said that Sachin’s technique was very good. He used to be in bad form but would soon come out of it but this was not the case with Virender Sehwag. When his bad form started, he would take a long time and then score runs. The same is happening with Babar. He is not able to select the ball. He is not able to understand whether he should hit or leave it.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)