Following Babar Azam's difficult outing against India in the T20 World Cup, Mark Butcher noted the tension between his "spectacular" drop in form and his position as one of Pakistan's leading figures.
Babar scored five runs from seven deliveries in Pakistan's loss to India on Sunday (February 15), marking his second dismissal before reaching 20 in the tournament in the first three games. There have also been bright spots, including a half-century against Australia and 46 off 32 balls against USA.
However, since the beginning of 2024, Babar has averaged 32.9 in T20Is, a far cry from the height of his peak in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Since the beginning of last year, his strike rate has dipped to 116.77 and he endured a mixed Big Bash campaign before the T20 World Cup started.
"About two years ago, he [Babar] was attracting a lot of heat," said Butcher, speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast. "Him and Mohammad Rizwan funnily enough, around strike rates. The world game and franchise game, you're seeing the top players around the world, wherever it might be, looking at strike rates in the 135s and above. Babar and Rizwan were always stubbornly below 130, in some cases down below 120, and they copped a lot of heat for that. They'd regularly be top run scorers in tournaments but the fruits that were gleaned from their run-scoring weren't always the ones that turned out with your side in the ascendancy.
"I think Babar, perhaps at the end, took that to heart a little bit and tried to do something about it, tried to accelerate his play, tried to be a little bit more expansive and not quite so risk averse. For a little while it worked, I think it was beginning of last year's PSL, but I don't know whether that messed with his mechanics or messed with his head. But the drop in form has been quite spectacular."
A win in their final group game against Namibia (February 18) will see Pakistan qualify for the Super Eights stage, despite losing to India. In that marquee game, Pakistan conceded 175-7, with Shaheen Shah Afridi going at more than 15 runs an over amid an attack packed with spinners. All of Pakistan's top four were then out before reaching double digits, with Usman Khan the one point of resistence.
"Rather than making this all about Babar specifically, in terms of the Pakistani public watching the game, they have felt for a very long time that there are certain players, big name players whose faces you see all over the Pepsi ads all over the country, they get picked no matter what they do," said Butcher.
"It doesn't matter how well or how badly they're playing, their name will always get them to the top of the team sheet. Shaheen yesterday went for 32 off two, you've got Abrar and Shadab as the senior spin bowlers in the side getting absolutely panned and the others trying to keep a lid on things at the other end, and then Babar's diminishing returns with the bat.
"It's like everywhere where people are interested in the game of cricket, you want out with the old and in with the new. But this certainly seems to have been building momentum over quite some period of time. It really doesn't help if you're going to play poorly and not give a great account of yourself against India, just ask the England boys when it comes to Australia."
For their do-or-die clash against Namibia, Pakistan did end up dropping Shaheen Afridi for Salman Mirza, though Babar and Shadab kept their places.
Match 35, Pakistan vs Namibia
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- Ball by ball Over
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