'Babar doesn't know how to do captaincy even after four years,' says Kamran Akmal

Akmal thinks that Babar should have utilised Iftikhar Ahmed in fifth T20I

By Web Desk
April 26, 2023
Kamran Akmal (L) and Babar Azam (R) - PCB/ICC

Former wicketkeeper batter Kamran Akmal bashed Babar Azam for doing poor captaincy against New Zealand in the T20I series. 

While speaking on his YouTube channel, Akmal, who played 53 Tests, 157 ODIs and 58 T20Is for Pakistan, said Babar didn't learn captaincy even in four years. 

"We lost because of our own mistakes and nobody is ready to accept that. In the last T20I, we made blunders, we didn't use our bowlers properly. We failed to defend a good total with our bowlers who have done well in the recent past," he highlighted. 

"If you talk about all this, they say we are criticising. There is a difference between performance and captaincy. Who is talking about performance, we are not blind, we are seeing captaincy. It's been four years and still, he [Babar] doesn't know how to do captaincy," he said. 

Akmal thinks that Babar should have utilised Iftikhar Ahmed when Mark Chapman and Jimmy Neesham, both left-handers, built match-winning partnership during the fifth and series-deciding T20I in Rawalpindi.

"If both the left-handed batsmen were on the crease, the logical choice would have been to give the ball to Iftikhar Ahmed. But instead, we saw the leg-spinner Shadab Khan being given the over and was being continuously smashed by the New Zealand batters," he said. 

"Our cricket is suffering. Our main bowlers conceded 40+ runs which cost us. We need to think about it," he concluded. 

Chapman and Neesham scored a match-winning partnership of 121 runs as New Zealand won fifth T20I to level five-match series 2-2. The two teams will now meet in five-match ODI series, starting on April 27 in Rawalpindi.

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