By Karan Agrawal 
Pakistan kicked off their Champions Trophy campaign with a tough loss against New Zealand on Wednesday, February 19. Choosing to bat first, New Zealand posted a mammoth total of 320 runs courtesy of centuries from the bat of Will Young and wicketkeeper batter Tom Latham. The duo was well supported by Glenn Phillips, who also scored a fifty to take his team to an above-par total on a difficult wicket in Karachi. Chasing more than 300 runs to win, Pakistan was dealt with a major blow as it was revealed that Fakhar Zaman would not open the batting as he was off the field for the major part of New Zealand’s batting innings. As a result, former captain Babar Azam partnered with Saud Shakeel to open the innings for Pakistan.
The Change
The change in batting order did not pay many dividends as both Babar and Saud, who are non-regular openers, struggled against good quality fast bowling by the New Zealand pacers, with Shakeel not being able to counter the swing and was dismissed inside the first four overs without making a significant contribution. Pakistani captain Mohammad Rizwan, who walked into bat at number three, followed soon courtesy of a one-handed blinder from Glenn Phillips. With Pakistan reduced to 14/2, the man in green needed an attacking partnership to gain some momentum, but what transpired was painful to watch.
The Struggle
With the arrival of Fakhar Zaman, everyone thought that the presence of Pakistan’s two most experienced batters at the crease might give the innings the much-needed impetus, but that wasn’t the case as Babar Azam found it difficult to even rotate the strike and was stuck at one end with an injured Fakhar trying his best to hit boundaries. Fakhar’s innings was cut short as he attempted to hit Bracewell over the ropes but completely missed the ball and was bowled. Fakhar’s dismissal meant that Pakistan was always playing catch-up cricket, even as Babar Azam completed a sluggish half-century.
The Form
Former Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was in no mood to spare Babar Azam for his slow half-century as he said that Babar’s inning was difficult to watch. “I’m a big fan of Babar Azam. Sometimes, as cricketers, when we want to safeguard our reputation, it becomes a problem. Reputation is not ahead of the team. Babar’s knock was very difficult to watch,” Ashwin said. Babar has been struggling to score runs in all three formats of the game since the 2023 ODI World Cup, which is evident by the fact that the right-hander hasn’t scored a single century in this time frame.
The Intent
Ashwin further criticized Babar for his lack of intent and said that this kind of innings were difficult to find even in the 90s “Intent kahan tha. Ghar pe rakh ke aaya tha kya? (Where was the intent? Did you keep it at your home? I actually feel that coming into the match, Babar Azam didn’t create shot options for himself. He doesn’t have any sh; there’s no shot for square of the wicket, no sweep, no reverse sweep, and the bottom hand is closed. There are no shots in his armory. Such innings weren’t even played in the 1990s,” he added.
The Plan
Ashwin compared the innings of Babar with Salman Ali Agah and Khushdil Shah, who scored runs at a good strike rate in an attempt to get close to the target. “What did they play yesterday? In the first 10 overs, they scored 20 runs without any shame. Salman Ali Agha, what a batting display! Tayyab Tahir, too, is aggressive, giving them a good platform to play. Babar is charging down the ground to defend the ball; he’s just playing dot ball everywhere. For this, he could have just gotten out,” he added.
The Start
Ashwin also expressed his disappointment with the lack of intent shown by the Pakistani batters in the first powerplay. “What makes me sad is that I agree he’s out of form. He wants to return to form. But there are only three matches in CT. Even if one is gone, you are almost knocked out. It was the same Pakistan that chased 350 recently. How can you score just 20 runs in the first powerplay? It wasn’t powerplay, it was poor play,” he added.
The Opportunity
The off-spinner also questioned Babar’s elegance, which, according to him, is of no use if a player of his class plays with such intent “Later on, Michael Bracewell is bowling, Glenn Phillips is bowling, and even Fakhar Zaman is trying to hit six, but our man [Babar] is just charging to score nothing. At least in anger, he could have hit something. After he got to 50, he scored a six. I’m flabbergasted when you have such a good game and play with this intent. I couldn’t watch the match; it was bad,” said Ashwin.