Why Babar Azam’s recent form is a concern for Pakistan ahead of upcoming ICC tournaments?

With ICC tournaments coming one after another, Pakistan can’t afford to keep fighting their woes without any progress. They’ll need their batters to be at the top of the game, and most importantly, have their most reliable batter, Babar Azam, doing what he does best.

It is an essential truth that exceptions tend to skew the results. For instance, cricket is a team sport, but the game has been known to act contrary to this often. Especially when confronted with a player who significantly outperforms the others. There are instances where a single player’s performance dictates how a team fares. For Pakistan, that individual is Babar Azam. In fact, it has been him for a long time.  

Babar Azam’s poor run across formats

While this might not sound like a desirable scenario to be in, where a single player is expected to do the bulk of the team’s work, both Pakistan and Babar himself had little reason to complain about this setting. That was until salad days were still not over for the right-handed batter, which, anyone who has been following the game knows, is not the case anymore. 

Since the last edition of the T20 World Cup, Babar has scored just two centuries in T20Is. A similar dismal form has followed him in the other two formats as well. 

Lean patches aren’t a new thing

But that isn’t unheard of. Big names undergo such slumps in form that Babar finds himself in currently. What separates Babar from those big names is the weight he has to carry. He has played under the constant pressure and expectation of being the team’s sole backbone across formats over the years.

It’s not as if Pakistan do not have other dependable batters to lean on. Quite the contrary, actually. Since Babar’s struggles became apparent, the team has unearthed plenty of talents across formats, who have performed decently and distributed the burden that once lay on Babar only. 

But none of them singlehandedly carry the team the way Babar once did. 

Parallels between performances of Babar and Pakistan

It is evident from the fact that since his willow became silent, Pakistan have ventured into the lows they hadn’t visited in a long time. This is also why, since then, the team has failed incredibly in ICC tournaments. 

Pakistan’s win percentage across formats in multi-national tournaments was the joint-third highest when Babar was in his prime (0.5), worse only than Australia and India. 

They have experienced a complete turn of tables since then. Their win percentage fell among the bottom three, better only than Bangladesh and West Indies. The risk, as it seems, is likely to persist for Pakistan in the near future as well. 

Pakistan and Babar are running out of time

Even if Pakistan lay their full belief on chipping in as a team, they would still need their premier batter to stay among the top. This is obviously concerning, given that the T20 World Cup is less than two months away. 

Pakistan dipped to rock bottom in the last edition in the USA and the Caribbean, where, too, Pakistan and Babar’s numbers complemented one another. 

He has stayed out of Pakistan’s T20 side for much of the period since that World Cup. And even on his return, he couldn’t embrace his trademark best, having averaged 25 at a gloomy strike rate of 119 since. It’s a tough situation for Babar to be in. Tougher still for Pakistan. 

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