Former Pakistani pacer Junaid Khan voiced strong criticism of Babar Azam's captaincy. There have been questions on Babar's leadership qualities after Pakistan's dismal performance in the 2023 World Cup and now Khan has joined the bandwagon.
Khan expressed dissatisfaction with Azam's leadership skills and asserted that the star batsman failed to evolve in his role as captain.
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On November 15, following a meeting with Zaka Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Management Committee, Babar Azam stepped down from captaincy in all formats. The PCB then appointed Shan Masood as the Test captain, and Shaheen Shah Afridi took charge of the T20I captaincy.
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What did Junaid Khan say?
Speaking about Babar Azam's captaincy, Khan said,
Babar had not improved as a captain. If you see Sarfaraz Ahmed, he kept improving day by day. We won the Champions Trophy under his leadership, became World No.1 in the T20Is. People say we became ODI No.1 team under Babar’s captaincy. But we became No.1 by playing against weak teams. Babar is not a quick learner. He is a world-class batter but his captaincy was not up to the mark.
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The former left-arm pacer drew comparisons with successful international captains, such as Pat Cummins and Virat Kohli, emphasizing the importance of aggression and leading by example.
Khan criticized Babar Azam for lacking these traits, stating that despite captaining all formats for four years, there was no progress under his leadership.
Look at Pat Cummins, he won the ODI World Cup for Australia. He is aggressive, he walks the talk. Virat Kohli also struggled but he has that aggression. He struggled after MS Dhoni retired, but he still has a good record.
People will say Dhoni and Stephen Fleming were not aggressive but they know how to lead a side. Babar doesn’t had those traits. You need to show aggression to boost the boys. He has captained all the formats for four years but there was no progress.
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