"He never scores runs in a big tournament" - Varun Aaron rips apart Babar Azam
Pakistan had a torrid time in the T20 World Cup 2024. Babar Azam and Co. lost their opening two matches to the USA and India. Despite winning their final two games against Canada and Ireland, Pakistan failed to qualify for the Super Eight stage.
Although Pakistan's bowlers stepped up, the batters let them down. On bowling-friendly surfaces, Pakistan batters struggled to put runs on the board. Even their best batters Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan found the going tough and struggled to score runs at a good rate.
While Babar had a strike rate of 101.66 throughout four matches, Rizwan finished with a strike rate of just 90.90, thus further raising questions about their batting abilities in the T20 format. The middle order failed miserably as none of the batters were able to create any significant impression.
Also read: After giving all excuses, Babar Azam pins the blame and drags ICC by the collar for his poor show
Varun Aaron's big statement on Babar Azam
Former India fast bowler Varun Aaron blamed Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan for Pakistan's underwhelming performances. In a shocking claim during an interaction on Star Sports, Aaron stated that Babar Azam doesn't score in big tournaments.
"They are dependent on Babar and Rizwan, and both Babar and Rizwan let Pakistan down. There are talks about Babar, especially, before every big tournament, but Babar Azam never scores runs in a big tournament against a big team. Your main player needs to stand up against big teams," he replied when asked about Pakistan's dismal performance in T20 World Cup 2024.
The former India quickly added that Pakistan's batters are running away from pressure situations, unlike the Indian batters.
"If you see India, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Hardik Pandya always put their hands up and say that they will play against big teams and take the pressure moments. I think no batter in the Pakistan lineup wants pressure moments. They are running away from pressure. They will have to face pressure head-on if Pakistan cricket has to progress," he mentioned.
Aditya Tare echoes Varun Aaron's statements
Meanwhile, in the same discussion, former Mumbai Indians batter Aditya Tare echoed Varun Aaron's statements by saying that Pakistan's best batters have let them down.
"It was an extremely disappointing performance, especially from the Pakistan top order. Both Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are their best T20 batters. However, the sort of strike rate they have, of course, the conditions were slightly difficult for batters, but their strike rates didn't go above 130 even leading into the World Cup," Tare said.
Babar Azam scored an unbeaten 32 off 34 balls in Pakistan's final group match against Ireland. Pakistan were in a spot of bother at one point when they were 62-6. But Babar rallied his lower-order batters and stayed till the end to end the tournament on a positive note. Lower-order batters Abbas Afridi and Shaheen Afridi also played crucial cameos.
