File image of Babar Azam© AFP
Former captain and coach Misbah-ul-Haq believes some people in the Pakistan Cricket Board are trying to weaken the position of current skipper Babar Azam and said this will have an adverse impact on the team’s dressing room. “Cricket is my blood and I watch cricket matches and read about cricket all the time. And from what I see Babar Azam’s position in the team is being weakened,” Misbah told reporters in Lahore on Tuesday.
Misbah, who was told to resign by former chairman Ramiz Raja as head coach in September 2021 although he had a three-year contract with the board, said that one can see this easily by watching the press conferences of Babar.
“Look at some of the questions being asked to him what do they indicate he is being weakened as a captain and I am afraid that will have adverse effects on the team’s dressing room.” Misbah, who held the all powerful positions of head coach and chief selector in 2019-2020, said if the cricket board had issues with Babar’s captaincy then they should sit down with him and the selectors and discuss it across the table.
“If you put pressure on someone like this it eventually will disturb the team and that is not good for Pakistan cricket.” Misbah, who is Pakistan’s most successful Test captain, feels frequent changes had weakened and disturbed the Test squad and it reflected in the team’s performance against England and New Zealand in recent time.
“Test teams are built after a lot of hard work and time and frequent changes don’t help. We had a good test side but the changes disturbed everything,” he said.
Misbah said if the PCB wanted to make changes it should talk to Babar openly so that there is no bad blood in future.
“Pakistan no doubt has a very good white ball squad so at least in those formats they are no problems at all. I personally would support Babar to the end,” he added.
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