Pakistan captain Babar Azam was the receiving end of heavy trolling on Thursday as he was dismissed for only 5 runs from 18 balls in Pakistan’s World Cup 2023 opening match against the Netherlands in Hyderabad.
On a good batting pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, the Pakistan top-order found life difficult against the accurate bowling and tight fielding of the Dutch. Pakistan lost their first three wickets – those of Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, and Imam-ul-Haq – inside the first 10 overs and their fans feared a massive upset right at the start of the tournament.
Babar Azam, who currently holds the number 1 ICC ODI Batsman ranking, scored only 5 runs in his struggle-filled knock of 18 balls. Babar was brilliantly tied down by off-spinner Aryan Dutt – kudos to the Netherlands for doing their homework right and straightaway targetting Babar with his weakness of right-arm off-spin. Against Dutt, Babar barely looked to hit a boundary; credit to the off-spinner as well for bowling tight lines and lengths.
After being slowed down early in his innings, Babar fell to Colin Ackermann, another off-spinner, compounding matters for the Pakistani skipper. With 5 runs in his first 17 balls, Babar looked for a boundary by trying to pull a length delivery from Ackermann, but it wasn’t short enough for the pull and a catch went straight to Saqib Zulfiqar at short mid-wicket.
The Netherlands players jumped and celebrated in joy, knowing how big a wicket that was for them.
This also, inevitably, led to a spate of memes and trolling on Babar Azam. While the Pakistani fans had been expecting a big knock from their skipper on a good pitch in Hyderabad against the only Associate Nation in this tournament, this low score eked out plenty of trolling and mockery for them and Babar.
PAK vs NED: Babar Azam gets trolled mercilessly with funny memes:
Teams:
Netherlands (Playing XI): Vikramjit Singh, Max ODowd, Colin Ackermann, Scott Edwards(w/c), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Saqib Zulfiqar, Logan van Beek, Roelof van der Merwe, Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meekeren
Pakistan (Playing XI): Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
