On Saturday, Pakistan Test cricketer Umar Akmal gave star batter Babar Azam some advise ahead of the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025, set to run from February 19 to March 9. Promoted to the opening spot for the recently finished tri-nation ODI series and the forthcoming eight-team competition, Babar is experiencing a difficult period since his 151-run knock against Nepal in the ACC Men’s Asia Cup 2023.
Nevertheless, the right-handed batter struggled in the new position since he only scored dismal 10, 23, and 29 in three innings.
Akmal, meantime, underlining the importance of Babar to live up to the confidence exhibited by the management in his capacity to lead from the front and score big in the forthcoming matches, spoke on his just created YouTube channel.
“King Babar, our batter at the top, has to score big. He is now mostly in charge of a lot. Since he opening, he will be leading from the front in the Champions Trophy. Therefore, Akmal stated, if he is expected as an opener to be trustworthy, he should live up to it.
Akmal also questioned the choice of white-ball skipper Mohammad Rizwan to bat first, drawing attention to the state of Karachi’s National Bank Stadium, which, based on past performance, support the side batting second.
“After winning the toss, Mohammad Rizwan should have chosen to bowl first since the bowl skids in lights at Karachi’s stadium and we could have readily pursued whatever the total they produce against us.
“We can thus say that the Pakistan team suffered from this Rizwan decision gone bad.”
Umar Akmal then asked the middle order to step out and demand that Pakistan’s team include a spinner for the Champions Trophy 2025.
