After giving all excuses, Babar Azam pins the blame and drags ICC by the collar for his poor show
Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam has criticized the pitches in New York for the low-scoring games in the T20 World Cup 2024. The pitch in New York has been under the scanner ever since the first game played at the venue between South Africa and Sri Lanka.
The highest score recorded at the venue across the eight matches turned out to be 137-7 scored by Canada against Ireland. The pitch had invariable bounce throughout the duration, which made it difficult for the batters to stay on the wicket for a long period. The fast bowlers had a great time here as they picked up 82 wickets as opposed to 15 wickets taken by the spinners.
Pakistan played two games at New York, and one game each at Dallas and Florida. In New York, they lost a close game to India but won the other game by defeating Canada by 7 wickets. Both the games were low-scoring ones.
Former cricketers and cricket experts like Mickey Arthur and Michael Vaughan were clearly unhappy with the pitches in New York. While Arthur termed the pitch 'very poor', Vaughan called it 'shocking' and 'unacceptable'.
Babar Azam blasts New York pitch for its low-scoring games
Pakistan captain Babar Azam joined the group of fans and experts who are not happy with the pitches in New York. Babar felt that the toss became very crucial as there was early help for the seamers due to an early morning start.
“Regarding pitches, in New York, it was very dependent on the toss. I think the timing for these games was too early because every team won the toss and opted to bowl as there was help for the bowlers in the morning,” Babar said.
The Pakistan skipper also stated the reason behind the low-scoring games in New York, which required the batters to take their time and build innings.
“The bounce is very inconsistent, sometimes it goes really high and sometimes very low. As a batsman, you have to take time and build innings. People were expecting 170-180 but the maximum has mostly been around 140 or less. I think the pitches should have been better," he added.
It is believed that drop-in pitches were used in New York, which requires some time to settle down. This could be the reason behind such low-scoring games at the venue. While the New York pitch turned out to be challenging for the batters, the pitch in Dallas produced good scores as batting was relatively easy there. The other venue in USA for this tournament was Florida, but it hosted just one out of four games due to the heavy rains in the region.
Babar Azam had a difficult time in the T20 World Cup 2024 both as a batter and as a captain. He scored 122 runs in 4 matches at a strike rate of just 101.66. He has been slammed by the experts for his low strike rates.
