'You talked about Virat Kohli...' - Ahmed Shehzad demolishes Babar Azam with latest attack for poor display in T20 World Cup

Following Pakistan's disastrous campaign in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024, their captain Babar Azam has come under fire once again.

The star batter has been facing criticism for quite some time now and the latest failure has only made things worse. Babar Azam had stepped down as the captain last year following Pakistan's league stage exit from the ODI World Cup. However, he was reinstated as the T20I captain in April this year but has failed to justify the decision so far.

Under his captaincy, Pakistan drew the T20I series at home against a second-string New Zealand side before losing a T20I against Ireland last month. It was followed by a 2-0 defeat in England before their disastrous outing in the T20 World Cup. Pakistan bowed out of the competition after losing against USA and India. They did beat Canada and Ireland but those victories were not enough for a place in the next round.

Babar Azam's performance with the bat has not been great either. He is facing criticism from several quarters for his poor strike rate as well as his failure to deliver under pressure situation. The right-handed batsman finished the campaign with 122 runs at a strike rate of just over 100.

Ahmed Shehzad slams Babar Azam:

In a recent chat show, former Pakistan batsman Ahmed Shehzad slammed Babar Azam and pointed out the team's struggle in recent times. When asked on whether it would be fair to be overly critical of the team when the conditions were not ideal for batting, Shehzad highlighted that the team has been underperforming for quite some time now.

"If you go back in time, you lost to Zimbabwe, then South Africa lost to Netherlands. Then you reached the final. We lost in Asia Cup to Sri Lanka. You look back at last three months... you lost to Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Ireland, now USA. You couldn't chase 120 against India. This isn't just about this World Cup," Shehzad told GEO News.

"We get paid for it. If I dominate the team for 4-5 years, I won't have an excuse. You have to prepare yourself for every condition, that's why you are an international cricketer. You should know how to tackle conditions and win the match for your country," he added.

When he was told that batting superstar Virat Kohli also failed to do well with the bat in the USA, Shehzad said:

"It isn't important that you perform. You talked about Kohli. Okay, Babar also got out. So what? Where is the team effort? You've got to find the things in a method... conditions are for both teams. You need to execute things rightly, from captaincy to using bowlers, and lead the team to win. If you're not winning the matches, you will be blamed."