"Can't be at the top..." - Andy Flower drops huge statement on Babar Azam's poor run

Former Zimbabwean cricketer Andy Flower opened up about Babar Azam’s poor run in international cricket of late. He also spoke about whether removing the batter from the captaincy of the Pakistan team had an impact on the right-hander. 

The past few months for Babar Azam haven’t been great. Since the start of the ICC World Cup 2023, he has been under the firing line. The batter didn’t have a great outing as he couldn’t get going with the bat. Apart from this, he also wasn’t impressive as a captain. 

Under him, Pakistan had a horrendous outing in the tournament. However, after that, he stepped down from the leadership in all three formats. However, that too didn’t do any good to him as his torrid run with the bat continued and he faced a lot of skewering. 

Babar Azam had a horrendous outing in Test cricket in Australia and could manage only 126 runs in 6 innings in the series at an underwhelming average of just 21. However, he returned to form in T20Is against New Zealand and hit three consecutive half-centuries. But even after that, he was under the firing line because of his strike rate and inability to take the team home in all the games. 

Andy Flower while talking about Babar Azam denied to comment on Babar Azam’s captaincy changes. He pointed out the batter’s impressive outings in BPL 2024 and said that the batter is an outstanding cricketer who has high standards. Speaking to Cricket Pakistan, he explained: 

“I would be reticent to comment about that because I am not in their dressing room so I don’t know about the ins and outs of how the leadership is working. 

“I saw him [Babar] batting in the T20 game the other day, he looked in good form. He is a guy who sets very high standards, he is very consistent but we all have our fluctuations. You can’t be at the top of your game all the time. No one is super human. He is an outstanding cricketer.” 

If you don’t ride up on top of your game, you get punished – Andy Flower on Pakistan’s poor outings in Australia and New Zealand

Pakistan faced a 3-0 whitewash in the Test series against Australia before facing a 4-1 thrashing against New Zealand in the five-match T20I series. Andy Flower analyzed their performance in both series and stated that they failed to seal the crunch moments. 

Andy Flower said that Pakistan were excellent in Australia as they had their moments and should be proud of the way they played. He added that in countries like Australia and New Zealand, if the team doesn’t bring their A game, they get punished. He explained: 

“Test series against Australia was an excellent Test series. Pakistan had their chances if they caught a few crucial catches then might have taken some wins away but Australia are good in Australia and know their conditions inside out. 

They are brilliant and if you give them any gap to go through, they will brutally force their way through their gap and that’s what happened. But I think they [Pakistan] should be proud of the cricket they played in Australia. 

“These [Australia & New Zealand] are tough opponents to come up against and if you don’t ride up on top of your game, you get punished. It’s not entirely surprising they have had two tough tours,” he concluded.