Former Pakistan wicket-keeper Moin Khan has labelled Babar Azam as a “darra hua” captain, which means a scared captain, and a timid batsman, following Pakistan’s loss to India in their World Cup 2023 match in Ahmedabad.
Moin Khan reacted to Babar Azam’s knock against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The Pakistani skipper scored 50 runs in 58 balls and he and Rizwan (who scored 49 runs in 69 balls) didn’t hit a single six in their knocks.
On the other hand, India captain Rohit Sharma attacked from the first ball to smash 6 fours and 6 sixes in his blazing knock of 86 runs in 63 balls.
Babar Azam’s wicket ensued a slide for his team as they collapsed from 155/2 to 191 all out.
Moin Khan observed that Babar himself didn’t ooze out any confidence and dominance, and that affected other players as well.
As quoted by Times of India, Moin Khan said: “Aapka kaptaan jab darra hua nazar ayega, nahi khelega, to ladke bhi phir wese hi react karte hain (If your captain looks afraid to play his shots, the other players in the team also react similarly).”
“They looked under pressure, and clearly, because of this, they didn’t execute proper shots. Aap pehle se dare hue honge ‘yaar mai shots khelunga to out na ho jaun’ (you are afraid beforehand, thinking you’ll get out while playing shots). I didn’t see intent from any batters,” Moin added.
Rashid Latif calls Babar Azam and Rizwan as “cowards”
Another former Pakistani cricket, Rashid Latif, laid down scathing criticism of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan for their “bizarre” batting against the Indian spin duo of Kuldeep and Jadeja. Latif said that Babar and Rizwan played sweep shots like “cowards” against Kuldeep and Jadeja.
Latif wrote in his column for The Indian Express: “The way two of our senior batsmen [Babar and Rizwan] played Kuldeep and Jadeja was also bizarre. They were not able to read Kuldeep and all of a sudden, they started playing sweep shots. Sweep shots are not for the Asian cricketers. Players from England and South Africa used to play sweep when they didn’t pick Abdul Qadir or Shane Warne.
“Look at the way Shreyas Iyer and Rohit Sharma play spin. Khuda ke liye (For god sake) use your feet, you have got two. Call me old school but in my opinion those batters who just sweep against spin in are cowards. They are playing sweep shots because they are scared of the bowlers.”
