OPINION
Follow UsYou either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain
For Babar Azam, that stage seems to have come already, aged 29.
It might be a minor blip, but it is one that is costing Pakistan majorly in the 2023 World Cup. In one of their most forgettable campaigns, as it is turning out to be, they are already looking at mathematical chances to qualify for the semi-finals.
Babar, the captain, will naturally be at the center point in their dissection of a disastrous campaign. But it is Babar, the batter, which will be the elephant in the room.
Heading into the World Cup as the number one ranked ODI batter, many predicted Babar to be the highest run-scorer of the tournament. On the contrary, he has managed only 207 runs, averaging 34.5 at a strike rate of 79. He has both the lowest average and strike rate among the 19 batters to have scored over 200 runs in the competition.
The strike rate, average, and conversion rate, everything has gone against the Pakistan skipper. He started the World Cup with a painful 18-ball 5. Babar later picked up to notch up three fifties. The fact that those fifties cost his team momentum at some point in the innings, that he didn’t convert them into a hundred and that Pakistan lost the game, makes them look worse. Pakistan’s chances have hit rock bottom and Babar hasn’t played any impactful knock yet.
There was already an asterisk to his growing reputation as an ODI batter. Most of his runs had come in Pakistan. In 20 months between January 2022 and August 2023, Pakistan played 15 of their 21 ODIs in rigid batting-friendly conditions at home. The other three ODIs were against the Netherlands and another three against Afghanistan in Sri Lanka. The 29-year old averaged 68.4 at a strike rate of 88.9, including five hundreds and 11 fifties. He scored nearly 25% of his team’s runs. The streak ended with 151 against Nepal during the Asia Cup in Multan.
Since then, facing other teams in Sri Lanka and India, Babar has averaged only 29.2.
The poor Asia Cup was sidelined as a minor bump, but it has extended to the World Cup. His returns have diminished to 11.6%.
In a competition where the record for the fastest World Cup hundred has been breached twice, Babar has not switched to the fourth gear.
The right-hander has a strike rate of 84.1 in the first 20 balls of his innings. However, it drops to 71.1 over the course of the next 40 deliveries. At a stage where other batters pick up, Babar is going into the snooze mode for a period of 40 balls. And even post that phase, he has a strike rate of only 89.2.
At no point in his innings Babar’s strike rate touches 90. As a result, even when he has scored a fifty, like 74 and 50 in Chennai, Pakistan have only ended up with a par score. Given their out-of-touch bowling, Pakistan need to score 30 runs extra, but they are not able to catch up to those prerequisites. A few more runs would have added to their cause against Afghanistan and South Africa.
He has struggled against spin, averaging only 28.3 (four dismissals) at a pedestrian strike rate of 63.5. Against finger spinners, he has failed to rotate strike while the wrist spinners have caused his undoing. Babar didn’t play any left-arm wrist-spin during his blooming period (aforementioned 20 months). In another facet of playing multi-team tournaments, he has faced three such bowlers - Kuldeep Yadav, Noor Ahmad, and Tabraiz Shamsi. Two of them have sent him packing.
The soft dismissals have added to his plight. Twice he has been caught in the short mid-wicket region trying to pull a ball that wasn’t there. Against India, set on 50, he played onto his off stump, trying to dab for a single, failing to convert with the platform laid in front.
Babar has crashed on all batting metrics when compared to his golden period.
The outdated strike rate reflects on his comparisons with the top guns of the format. There is one thing that binds the top ODI batters together - all of them have the ability to accelerate. Sir Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, AB de Villiers, Ricky Ponting, Virat Kohli - all of them could speed up relatively better with respect to their era, across conditions. Babar Azam hasn't matched that standard as yet. It is also hurting the Pakistan team that doesn’t have a six-hitter in their top five.
The Pakistan skipper averages 56.7 for over 5,500 runs in the format with 19 hundreds. But probably the fans jumped the gun on putting him in the pantheons of greats since Babar lacks an important ingredient. He is yet to shine across conditions and situations.
Unlike the Yuvrajs and the Pontings, he is unable to grasp the big moments. The World Cup was a set stage - a batter deemed to be developed, experienced but not old, batting-friendly conditions. But Babar has now faltered twice in a row after a poor T20 World Cup last year.
It is also a bubble burst for Pakistan cricket as a whole. Behind all their success, they have been playing outdated cricket. They are a batting unit designed to post par scores. On flat decks in Pakistan, those par scores have been in excess of 330, which created the false illusion of being a high-scoring team. Now they have been served a reality check in conditions outside, in a multi-team tournament. Fakhar Zaman’s poor form and fitness have diminished their six-hitting prowess further.
There are multiple ways in which Babar’s low returns have been symbolic of Pakistan’s debacle this World Cup. Both parties have not responded well to contesting away from home. They have been culprits of playing a brand more suited to 15 to 20 years ago. Going back to the clash against India, Pakistan's top order slowed down after earning a good start. Instead of taking charge, they seemed apprehensive - a good adjective to denote Babar’s style of batting in the competition.
His captaincy will come under scrutiny too. Babar has been leading Pakistan for three years now, having led them in two T20 World Cups before. For someone with such experience, it was surprising to see Pakistan not keen on keeping Tabraiz Shamsi on strike. Babar had a long-on in place with Mohammad Nawaz bowling to Shamsi - again lacking intent and handing over easy runs.
Babar’s captaincy is at stake now and he needs to find more scoring options. However, fortunes change in a snap in Pakistan cricket. Who knows, if he gets back to his best in the remaining three games and Pakistan finish on high despite no qualification, he might be granted a second life as captain. During this, he will lift his batting to contemporary standards.
Whatever happens, Babar will be a narrative to follow post-World Cup and a tough decision for the Pakistan Cricket Board.
The star attraction of the side. Also, the villain of a disastrous World Cup campaign. The elephant in the room. You don’t want to be him right now.
