Salman Butt, the former captain of Pakistan, has discussed the increasing pressure on Babar Azam, shedding light on the reasons behind the heightened scrutiny from fans and former cricketers.
In a conversation with a local sports channel, Butt identified two primary reasons for the criticism directed at Babar. Although he is regarded as Pakistan's leading batter and arguably the most consistent player over the past decade, Butt believes that Babar's performance is heavily scrutinized due to the team's excessive dependence on him.
“There are two reasons (for the pressure on Babar). Undoubtedly, he is currently Pakistan's finest batter and, in my opinion, the most consistent player of the decade. However, the issue is that when previous players struggled, they were less out of form compared to Babar," Butt stated.
"But in the past, there were 4-5 other players who contributed to match victories, so the overall respect was preserved and the situation was managed. Now the challenge is that Babar scores a significant portion of the runs for Pakistan, with no one else able to match his contributions,” he added.
The former opener emphasized that Pakistan's over-reliance on Babar Azam has unveiled a significant flaw: a lack of player development. He argued that the emphasis on power-hitting and aggressive play has led to a deficit of technically proficient players capable of stabilizing the innings when Babar is not performing well.
“Now, when he isn’t scoring, it appears that Babar is not contributing. He has conditioned fans to expect high run tallies, and they now anticipate him to perform in every innings. Currently, there is no other match-winning player alongside him in the Pakistan team,” he remarked.
“You can observe that when he fails to score, it becomes evident that the Pakistan team is unlikely to win the match. This highlights the issue in Pakistan cricket: there has been insufficient player development. The focus has been on power-hitting and aggressive styles, leaving the team without players who possess the necessary techniques,” he concluded.
It is important to note that Babar has encountered difficulties lately, accumulating only 22 runs in the first Test and merely 31 runs in the first innings of the ongoing second Test against Bangladesh. With no fifties in his last 15 Test innings, the pressure on Pakistan's white-ball captain continues to escalate, resulting in increased criticism of his performance.
