Amid growing criticism of Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam for hisconsistently underwhelming performance, it becomes crucial to examine the29-year-old’s rather “shocking” statistics in the 2023 World Cup.
Babar, who holds the top rank in one-day international (ODI) batting, hasmaintained an average of just 34.50 and a rather modest strike rate of 79,accumulating a total of 207 runs across six matches in the mega-event.
Despite securing three half-centuries, Babar Azam holds the lowest strikerate among batsmen who have scored over 50 runs. For instance, in hisrecent innings against South Africa, he maintained a strike rate of 76.92,requiring 66 deliveries to accumulate 50 runs.
Against Afghanistan, his strike rate was 80.43, while it improved to 86.20against India. In a similar vein, emerging batsman Abdullah Shafique isalso part of this list, scoring 58 runs from 75 balls with a strike rate of77.3.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan, after winning the toss and choosing to bat,faced challenges in putting up a substantial total, managing only 270 runsbefore being bowled out in the 47th over in a crucial match to remain incontention for the World Cup 2023 semi-finals
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. It’s worth noting that the Pakistan cricket team is currently on shakyground, having suffered three consecutive losses against India, Australia,and Afghanistan.
A defeat in today’s match could dash their hopes of making it to thesemi-finals of this prestigious event. Earlier in the day, Pakistan’scaptain, Babar Azam, won the toss and decided to bat in their World Cupmatch against the formidable South Africa.