Leg and off: Should Babar Azam relinquish Pakistan captaincy after T20 World Cup exit?
There is a lot of heat on skipper Babar Azam following Pakistan's disastrous 2024 T20 World Cup campaign. With almost all facets being criticized perhaps barring the fast bowling unit, several questions need answering, but it is only possible after there is some clarity regarding the leadership future.
Babar's regressive tactics, body language, and inability to bring cohesion in the dressing room have all been outlined as reasons behind Pakistan's disastrous campaign, along with several other factors.
Volatile cricket boards much like the one Pakistan have in place are often not shy of making radical decisions without a second thought. The general feeling is that, once they decide on the captaincy debate, they can go about making changes in the other departments, and there are a lot that need immediate attention.
On that note, let us take a look at the factors involved in this fragile situation and determine whether Babar Azam should remain as captain or not.
#1 Square One is becoming a familiar place for Pakistan
'Back to square one' is a term often used with sides who repeat their mistakes, and it might be most used for Pakistan. The Men in Green have walked through this same perilous path time and again, so much so that, it has become a very familiar setting.
The changes in the PCB hierarchy affect the team so much to the extent that it is a sorry sight to see politics completely overshadow cricket in the nation. With each incoming chairman coming with his own set of ideas, Pakistan Cricket is forced to press the restart button in the middle of a formatting process.
Now that Pakistan are back to square one (once again), this is potentially an opportunity for everyone involved to just have a deep look, and change only what is necessary and logical - like adopting the modern T20 game, unearthing more all-rounders and middle-order candidates and so on, rather than just cutting the head of the snake and hoping that the next man in line will change everything.
#2 If not Babar Azam, then who?
Babar Azam had a lengthy stint as captain up until the 2023 ODI World Cup. There were claims that captaincy affected his batting, and so on and on, but his reign as Pakistan skipper was largely good. Even though it was not an era laden with silverware and such, there was a respectable win percentage beside his name.
It's quite easy to forget the past in cricket since the present and future are much more pulsating. It has not been long since Babar Azam led the nation into the knockouts of successive T20 World Cups. They were unbeaten in the group stage of the 2021 edition and surpassed great odds to make it to the final of the 2022 edition.
However, if the board wishes to not give Babar Azam a serious shot to work with Gary Kirsten and change Pakistan's white-ball fortunes, then it is not like they have candidates lined up.
Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi, and Shadab Khan present themselves as options for the next captain, but each comes with their own set of woes, and can hardly be classified as an upgrade to Babar and his leadership experience.
Shadab does not have the best of records as captain, winning only two matches out of six, including series losses to New Zealand and Afghanistan. Furthermore, his own place in the team is under threat due to poor form, which hardly makes him a wise choice.
Afridi is unlikely to fall into the same trap after being ousted as captain after one series. Rizwan does have a credible captaincy record in the PSL, but even he is floating on the same boat as Babar when it comes to the allegations surrounding individualism and several others.
#3 Pakistan arguably have more pressing issues than Babar Azam's captaincy
Was Babar Azam's captaincy a major factor behind Pakistan's elimination? Bigger than all of the other issues that were on show throughout the campaign? If the answers to these questions are yes, then Pakistan's search for a new search would have been justified, but it is not in this case.
Yes, Babar Azam could have led his side much better, but even with the most astute leadership, this current Pakistan side might not have fared drastically different.
Former English skipper Michael Vaughan arguably surmised the entire scenario perfectly during a recent interaction on Cricbuzz.
"I hope I don't see them changing again. Somewhere they got to have some consistency. There is no point in changing once again, so even if he is not perfectly suited to captaining T20 cricket, I do think, for this period, they should stay consistent, because the last thing Pakistan need is more kamikaze, swapping and changing, and overreacting," Vaughan said.
At the moment, on paper, it is just not a good team. It is down to the coaches and the selectors, and the system back in Pakistan to give the captain and coach a pool of players to choose from. They probably have them," Vaughan added.
To conclude, it is quite difficult to refute the aforementioned stone-cold opinion. A thorough review from top to bottom, the separation of politics from cricket, investing in the domestic system, cultivating and ingraining the modern-day approach into the players, or finding alternatives are only some of the issues that Pakistan need to address
If these measures are implemented and Babar Azam still fails to produce results, then there is room for the captaincy debate to have a say. Until then, Pakistan have to repair from the core and settle with what they have. As of now, Pakistan's priority is not to do Pakistan things.