Parthiv Patel brutally slams 'selfish' Babar Azam, calls him unfit for T20Is

Updated - 01 Jul 2024, 03:08 PM

Parthiv Patel, Babar Azam
Parthiv Patel, Babar Azam (Credits: X)

Former India batsman Parthiv Patel has brutally ridiculed Babar Azam and has said that he is not a T20I player. The Pakistan skipper has been facing severe criticism from several quarters after his team's poor show in the recently-concluded ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

Babar Azam had stepped down as the captain last year after Pakistan bowed out of the ODI World Cup at the league stage. However, he was reinstated as the T20I captain in April this year but the move has not paid off. In April, Pakistan drew the home series against a second-string New Zealand side.

They then lost a T20I against Ireland before suffering a 2-0 loss against England. It was followed by a disastrous campaign in the T20 World Cup where Pakistan failed to advance ahead of the group stage after suffering losses against the USA and India.

Babar Azam's performance with the bat has not been promising either. The Pakistan captain has failed to lead his team from the front since taking charge of the team this year. In the T20 World Cup, he managed to score 122 runs at a strike rate of 101.66.

Parthiv Patel slams Babar Azam:

With Babar Azam failing to impress as both captain and a batsman in recent times, Parthiv Patel has come down hard on him. Speaking on the YouTube show Cyrus Says, the former cricketer spoke about the decline of Pakistan cricket.

He began by pointing out the kind of players Pakistan had in yesteryear before cheekily stating that now they have the likes of Babar and Rizwan. He also said that Pakistan cricket does not have players who can do well in T20s at the moment. When the host of the show talked about Fakhar Zaman, Parthiv Patel stated that he was demoted in the batting order because Babar Azam was selfish and wanted to open.

"They have a very weak team now. Look at the team they used to have: Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Yousuf Yohana (Mohammad Yousuf), Saqlain Mushtaq, and now Babar Azam, Rizwan," said Parthiv Patel.

"They don't have players. They don't have T20 kind of players, the way cricket is going right now. We are talking about a strike rate of 150, 160, and they are still in the 120s. They are far behind any other international side.

The captain wanted to open, so he had to come down. When your captain himself is a selfish player, then there is no chance," he added.

Tagged:

Parthiv Patel Babar Azam Pakistan national cricket team ICC T20 World Cup Fakhar Zaman