'Intent ghar pe rakh ke aaya tha kya?' - Ravichandran Ashwin brutally trolls Babar Azam for his knock vs NZ

Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has torn apart Pakistan's star cricketer Babar Azam for his knock against New Zealand in the opening match of Champions Trophy 2025. Ashwin questioned Babar Azam's intent in a knock where he struggled for the most part.

Babar Azam's slow fifty against New Zealand didn't help his team's cause. During a run-chase of 321 runs, Babar took 90 balls to score just 64 runs. He struck 6 fours and 1 six during his knock.

Babar's unusual innings received widespread criticism from all the factions as he was called out for trying to play for himself rather than for his country. He hasn't been in great form recently and his struggle continued in this game.

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Ravichandran Ashwin brutally trolls Babar Azam

While speaking on his Hindi YouTube channel 'Ash Ki Baat', Ravichandran Ashwin admitted to being a big fan of Babar Azam. However, he claimed that Babar's struggling knock wasn't easy to watch as he was unable to change gears.

“I’m a big fan of Babar Azam. Sometimes, as cricketers, when we want to safeguard our reputation, it becomes a problem. Reputation is not ahead of the team. Babar's knock was very difficult to watch,” Ashwin said.

Further speaking in the same video, Ashwin questioned Babar Azam's intent and felt that the batter didn't create enough chances for himself to score runs. Ashwin believes that Babar lacks shots in his armory which makes it difficult for him to play in an aggressive mode.

"Intent kahan tha. Ghar pe rakh ke aaya tha kya? (Where was the intent? Did you keep it at your home? I actually feel that, coming into the match, Babar Azam didn’t create shot options for himself," Ashwin noted.

"He doesn’t have any shots, there’s no shot for square of the wicket, no sweep, no reverse sweep, bottom hand is closed. There are no shots in his armoury. Such innings weren’t even played in the 1990s,” the former offspinner added.

"It wasn’t powerplay, it was poor play" - Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin tore apart Pakistan's batting performance against New Zealand and slammed Babar Azam for his lack of aggressive intent. He praised Salman Ali Agha for his attacking knock but felt Babar's knock pushed Pakistan back.

“What did they play yesterday? In the first 10 overs, they scored 20 runs without any shame. Salman Ali Agha, what a batting display! Tayyab Tahir, too, is aggressive, giving them a good platform to play. Babar is charging down the ground to defend the ball, he’s just playing dot ball everywhere. For this, he could have just gotten out,” said Ashwin.

Ashwin wasn't convinced with Pakistan's performance in the powerplay in which they scored just 22 runs in 10 overs and lost two wickets in the process. He believes that the format of the Champions Trophy won't give Pakistan many chances of making a comeback.

“What makes me sad is that I agree he’s out of form. He wants to return to form. But there are only three matches in CT. Even if one is gone, you are almost knocked out. It was the same Pakistan that chased 350 recently. How can you score just 20 runs in the first powerplay? It wasn’t powerplay, it was poor play," he observed.

Do-or-die match for Pakistan

Pakistan will be in a must-win situation when they face the arch-rivals India in the next match on February 23 in Dubai. The Men in Green need to win the match at any cost to stay in contention for the semi-final spot.

On the other hand, India started their Champions Trophy 2025 campaign with a win over Bangladesh. They will be high on confidence before the highly anticipated clash against Pakistan and will be aiming to book their spot in the next round.