Pakistani former masterblaster Shahid Afridi has responded to former Indianopening batsman Gautam Gambhir’s misplaced criticism of Babar Azam where hecalled the Pakistani skipper a ‘selfish’ player.
The former Indian opener’s remarks stem from Babar Azam’s recent poor runof form first in the Asia Cup and now during the T20 World Cup inAustralia, where the star Pakistani batter has barely scraped through.
In three matches so far, Babar has scores of 0 against India, 4 againstZimbabwe and 4 against Netherlands.
Gautam Gambhir stated that Babar Azam should play for the team and notthink about himself, referring to the possibility of demoting himself inthe middle order and maybe make someone like Fakhar Zaman open the battingfor the team.
“In my opinion, first, you think about your team instead of yourself; ifnothing goes according to your plan, you should have sent Fakhar Zaman upthe batting order. This is called selfishness; as a captain, it is easy tobe selfish. It is easy for Babar and Rizwan to open the innings forPakistan and create so many records. If you want to be a leader, you haveto think about your team,” Gambhir said on air during the Pakistan vsNetherlands game.
Shahid Afridi, who has no love lost with Gambhir, responded to the remarkby coming up with a quirky suggestion for Babar, and pointing out thatwhile players can rightly, at times be subjected to criticism, thejudgement should be constructive and one that leads to the betterment ofthe player.
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“Tournament k baad koshish karenge Babar ko bole ki unke baare mein bhikuch bole kyuki wo bhi toh ghar jayenge na. [During the tournament, we’lltry and tell Babar to say something about him. Afterall, he (Gambhir) willhead straight back home to India too],” Afridi said on a Pakistani TVchannel.
“There is always criticism but you need to be very careful with words. Youshould use words that it should come as an advice for the player and youcan make the people understand it as well. As far as Babar is concerned, hehas given so many match-winning performances. The consistency with which hehas scored, very few Pakistan batters have. He may not have risen to theexpectations which is why he is facing some flak.”
Afridi shifted focus to the India vs Bangladesh Group 2 Super 12 match atthe Adelaide Oval on Wednesday. It is a contest that will be keenlyfollowed by the Pakistan team and its supporters as a Bangladesh win willkeep their semi-final hopes alive, whereas the opposite will diminish itfurther. On current form, India are clear favourites and Afridi feels itwill take a miracle for Bangladesh to pull off a win over the mighty Indianteam.
“The kind of format T20 is, any team can upset any other side. But onpaper, the Indian team is quite big and experienced. They have some reallystar individual performers while Bangladesh is not the same team which theywere some time back. They were expected to do well but whatever I have seenon Shakib’s captaincy, he hasn’t delivered good results. On current form,one would obviously rate India,” the former all-rounder mentioned.
