"Won’t Get Anything By Winning PSL" - Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Akram Advise Babar Azam To Ditch Captaincy

Former India National Cricket Team opener Gautam Gambhir and former Pakistan National Cricket Team pacer Wasim Akram have advised Babar Azam to ditch the PSL captaincy ahead of the 2024 edition of the competition.

Babar is no longer the captain of Pakistan National Cricket Team across formats. After Pakistan’s disastrous World Cup campaign, PCB sacked him as white-ball captain and asked him to continue as red-ball captain, which he denied and relinquished the captaincy altogether.

Babar Azam, who is the most successful batter in PSL history, has been retained in the platinum category by Peshawar Zalmi and is expected to lead the team in PSL 2024. However, Wasim Akram is against Babar taking over the leadership responsibility in franchise cricket and wants him to play solely as a batter.

Speaking to Sportskeeda, Akram revealed that he had advised Babar to quit as captain in PSL a few years back. The Pakistan great said:

“I had a given an idea to Babar Azam a couple of years ago that don’t do captaincy in league cricket. [You’re a] Big player, take your money, play your game, get runs, go home, and then to the next event. Pakistan’s captaincy is alright, but the league brings extra stress without any reason.”

“I think you’ll see the best of Babar Azam now” – Gautam Gambhir

During the same discussion, Gautam Gambhir said that Babar will unleash his true self in the upcoming Australia series as he will have no captaincy burden.

“I think you’ll see the best of Babar Azam now, you’ll see a completely different Babar Azam because I had picked Babar Azam ahead of the World Cup. I told him that he’d be the batter of the tournament, but the captaincy pressure [let him down].”

“When you do captaincy in the World Cup and the team doesn’t perform well, then you can imagine the pressure on the skipper,” he added. 

“Now, you’ll see the actual Babar Azam, which no one has seen. I don’t know what are the records of Babar Azam, but you’ll see his actual ability from now on.”

Gambhir further said that Babar won’t get anything by winning the PSL trophy and he needs to focus on his batting. The India batting great also opined that Babar can become the best batter ever produced by Pakistan.

“Yes, no need because Babar doesn’t have to prove anything. Babar Azam won’t get anything by winning the PSL. Honestly, Babar Azam has a lot of quality, he can go out and become the best batter Pakistan has ever produced,” Gambhir said.

“And he’s what 27 or 28 (actually 29), he’s got another 10 years and now he’ll have 10 years because of no pressure of captaincy,”. he added.