Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh was not impressed with the way Pakistan skipper Babar Azam batted in the all-important final against England at the iconic MCG on Sunday. Azam scored 32 runs off 28 balls with the help of two fours and scored his runs at a strike rate of 114.29.
As a result, Pakistan could only manage 39-1 in the PowerPlay overs. In fact, Azam struggled throughout the tournament to score runs at a brisk apart from his knock of 52 runs in the semifinal against New Zealand.
Harbhajan Singh feels Babar Azam chewed up deliveries and thus put extra pressure on the other batters. Pakistan could only post an under-par score of 137 runs after Jos Buttler decided to put them into bat.
Furthermore, Pakistan’s openers could only give a good start to their team as Mohammad Rizwan was dismissed for 15 runs.
Harbhajan Singh said while talking to Star Sports, “Pakistan will be disappointed with their batting effort. They didn’t take their chances early on and Babar was pretty ordinary in my book. You are the captain of this ship and you cannot bat like that. 28 balls and you are just scoring 32 runs. You are putting your team in deep deep trouble. They couldn’t come over it.”
Babar Azam had a disappointing T20 World Cup campaign as he scored 124 runs in seven matches at an average of 17.71 and a poor strike rate of 93.23. Thus, he could not lead the team from the front and it was because of Pakistan’s middle order and the pace battery that they were able to qualify for the finals.
In fact, Azam also admitted that they were 20 runs short of a par score and lauded the bowlers for their fine show.
Babar Azam said in the post-match presentation, “We were 20 runs short but the fight to the last over was unbelievable. Our bowling is one of the best but unfortunately, Shaheen’s injury cost us a different result, but that’s part of the game.”
Pakistan came up with a disappointing batting performance and it led to their downfall in the all-important final.
