New Delhi: Former Pakistan player Sikander Bakht has criticised Babar Azam severely after the latter stepped down as the white-ball skipper recently. Bakht said that the the former skipper should have shown some shame and resigned from his role after Pakistan’s early exit from the T20 World Cup 2024.
Pakistan failed to qualify for the knockout stage, losing the group game against debutants USA and arch-rivals India. While their loss against India did not come as a massive blow, the defeat against the USA side shook them and was deemed as the most shameful loss in the country’s history. Bakht added that Babar should have realised this much earlier, especially considering his performances as a batter and captain have not been up to the mark.
You finally felt ashamed, says Sikander Bakht
In an interaction on Pakistan TV channel Geo News, the former player said that when the entire nation was saying that he should have resigned, he remained stubborn.
“Ab sharam ayi! (You finally felt ashamed!) As soon as our World Cup was over on 16th June because we had not qualified further, he should have resigned at the same time. The whole nation was saying that he should have resigned. But he was stubborn. Because his style was like this, he was king (In a sarcastic way). His performance was not good, neither was theirs. Anyway, they should have seen that we are removed in two ways. I don’t know what happened to him,” Bakht told Geo News.
On the same interview, the former Pakistan player also went on to claim that Babar did not resign but he was told to do so. He also added that the atmosphere in the dressing is not great with three players-Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Mohammad Rizwan-are already vying for the captaincy in white-ball cricket.
“He was told to resign. Look, we have three captains in our base. There are groups of three captains. One is Babar, another is Rizwan. They want to become captains. Shaheen want to become captain again. And there is also Shan Masood. Shan Masood lost five or six matches,” he added.
Star player Babar Azam finally submitted his resignation as Pakistan men’s white-ball captain on Tuesday evening. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
