"When He Scores, It's Against Zimbabwe...": Babar Azam Slammed For Poor Batting Intent

Former Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria came hard at premier Pakistani batters Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan for their poor performances in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, slamming the former for his lack of "intent" against big oppositions and piling up runs majorly against smaller nations. It was a Champions Trophy to forget for Babar and Rizwan, who had forgettable outings against Bangladesh and arch-rivals India, scoring 87 runs (with a half-century) and 49 runs respectively in two matches so far. While Babar's sluggish knock of 64 in 90 balls against New Zealand while chasing 321 generated massive criticism, Rizwan repeated the same conservative approach with a sluggish 46 in 77 balls against India, which though helped Pakistan stitch a century stand, it could only take them to a final score of 241 runs. The result of such sluggishness is: Pakistan knocked out of their home tournament within a matter of five days.

Speaking to ANI about the performances of the batters, Kaneria said, "Babar has not scored runs for so long But when he scores, it is against Zimbabwe or against smaller teams. If he scores against big teams. So, there is no intent at all."

"There is no depth in the batting. Salman Agha and Khushdil Shah make some contributions sometimes. Saud Shakeel is a technically correct batter. But Rizwan's bat seems to have stopped working. When the Champions Trophy squad was announced, one could see it getting eliminated pretty soon out of the tournament," he added.

Babar has not scored an international century since August 2023, when he scored 151 against Nepal in Asia Cup 2023 in an ODI. Since then, he has played 24 ODIs and scored 753 runs at an average of 37.65 with seven fifties, at a relatively