The Champions Trophy began in Pakistan on 19 February 2025 with a game between the hosts Pakistan and New Zealand. What started quite promisingly for the host nation, quickly turned into shambles are New-Zealand, fresh from their dominance of Pakistan in the ODI series preceding the Champions Trophy, asserted themselves pretty well and galloped home in a canter. Babar Azam has been roasted for his rather strange innings. It was true. He did play like playing in Test cricket. Chasing more than 300, one would expect the openers to bat aggressively and decisively. Admittedly, Saud Shakeel was snapped very early but Rizwan too followed suit rather quickly but what transpired in the middle was something hard to watch. This is the same Babar who was compared to the likes of former Kohli. The present Kohli is still a better batsman. The Pakistanis were allover Babar. Oh come on Pakistanis.
There was utter lack of intent on the part of Babar and Fakhar Zaman. However, Babar being the hailed as someone great by the Pakistanis must have shown a lot more intent. Instead, he was comfortable playing sedately. It was as though, Pakistan was chasing a paltry score of just over 100. It did not seem to register in Babar that he had to score more than a run a ball even for Pakistan to be in the chase. Instead, by batting so poorly, he effectively shut the chase down in the powerplay itself.
By the looks of it, Babar definitely thought that it was impossible to chase that score. It was not long ago, albeit, against a poorer bowling team, Pakistan managed to overhaul a score in excess of 350 against South Africa. The mental scar of having been thrashed by New-Zealand in the preceding series has left a mark.
The reactions
The most irritating part of Babar’s innings must be when he was photographed kissing the Pakistan emblem after reaching 50. I just could not fathom why he would do that despite a lazy innings.
Ashwin was at his cheeky best when he tweeted or should I say, X ed, “Babar’s journey to 50 coupled with Salman Ali Agha’s batting has to be the best depiction of “ The Tortoise and Rabbit story”. #ChampionsTrophy The 50 I hope will come soon enough,” Ashwin tweeted on ‘X’.
Danish Salt tweeted, “Babar’s journey to 50 coupled with Salman Ali Agha’s batting has to be the best depiction of “ The Tortoise and Rabbit story”. #ChampionsTrophy The 50 I hope will come soon enough,” Ashwin tweeted on ‘X’.
Misty Sinha wrote, “Babar’s journey to 50 coupled with Salman Ali Agha’s batting has to be the best depiction of “ The Tortoise and Rabbit story”. #ChampionsTrophy The 50 I hope will come soon enough,” Ashwin tweeted on ‘X’.
Pakistan started their chase in a rather bizarre fashion. Where they should have been scoring at atleast 6 an over in the initial phase, they huffed and puffed their way through the powerplay. Babar, Shakeel and Rizwan was just content on surviving rather than score runs. Ofcourse, Rourke and Henry was miserly and bowled tight lines but that is expected of every international bowler but Pakistan was afraid to take calculated risks. They did not even try and get those quick ones and twos.
Agha Salman said, “When you’re chasing 320, you need a big partnership at the start. But that never happened, and wickets continued to fall. We didn’t play a good powerplay. We had to produce momentum at some point, without which chasing this sort of score is very difficult.”
Saqlain Mushtaq’s rant
With Fakhar Zaman out of the tournament, Pakistan does not have anyone to bat aggressively at the top of the order.
“Their tantrums just don’t end. We are singing their praises. Children here want to see Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah. Every child here wants to see them in action, but their tantrums just don’t end. I don’t know in which world they are living in and what they want to achieve. When are they going to be intelligent and wise? When will they open their hearts? By wearing a tie and talking in English, you think you have become civilised? Pakistan should take a stand and teach them a lesson,” Mushtaq was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times (HT).
Here, Saqlain complains about India and Indians in general. He must understand that India will never travel to Pakistan. We Indians just do not want anything to do with them and for obvious reasons. He can rant all he wants but nothing is going to change. The world awaits an Indian tour so that they can pay their bills. In such a scenario, why would the Indian board even think of sending an Indian team to Pakistan? There are far better options than that.
Wrapping up oh come on Pakistanis
It is time to stop comparing Babar Azam with even the present Kohli. He has a very long way to go before he could even be considered a good batsman. Without performances in the tougher countries, it is impossible to bracket him even with someone from Bangladesh.
