Under the leadership of Babar Azam, Pakistan will aim to go one step better in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, after ending the last season as the runners-up against the champion England side. In 2021, the ‘Green Brigade’ reached the semifinal where they lost to Australia in Dubai.
Babar Azam-led Pakistan team are coming into this T20 World Cup, on the back of their 2-0 series defeat in the four-match T20I away series against England. They looked to be the hosts with the bowling at the tour’s opening game, but by the time the series ended at the Kennington Oval in London, the bowling department looked fragile and under-prepared.
Even against Ireland, Pakistan lost the first 20-over game of the three-match series before the England series, as questions started to grow over Babar’s captaincy skills after he replaced Shaheen Shah Afridi in the leadership position.
‘I think Babar Azam might have learned a bit from that’ – Ricky Ponting
Babar Azam resigned from the captaincy position after he failed to carry Pakistan out of the group stage of the ODI World Cup 2023 in India, and that too for the second consecutive edition.
The former Australia captain Ricky Ponting hopes that the Pakistan leader has learned lessons from his past mistakes as he heads towards the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024. Ponting also touched on the fact that the best players always don’t necessarily become the best captains.
“Captaincy just sits well with some people and it doesn’t sit well with others. We’ve seen it through the years that some of the best players that have ever played the game have not necessarily made the best captains.
“The thing that makes some of the very best players so good is how focused they are on what they need to do to get better and to be the best and find a way every day to get better,” Tasmania Batter expressed during an episode of the ICC review.
The former player feels that captaincy also becomes tough because it’s not only about focusing on your own game, but also about managing the other players, which included both batters and the bowlers.
“And when you are captain, you can’t do that. You’ve got to actually compartmentalize what you’re doing, look after your own game, look after all the guys around you,” Ponting elaborated.
The veteran also points out that Babar Azam’s captaincy numbers went down on the back of a few poor series, but it’s important for him to take lessons from those past mistakes.
Also Read: T20 World Cup 2024: ‘India Need To Reach The Podium To Be Successful’ – Aakash Chopra
“So, some guys can manage that better than others. I reckon Babar, when he first started, I had that feeling that he (that) because if you look at his record, his numbers went down on the back of it. So, I think he might have learned a bit from that,” the 49-year-old concluded.
The form, however, for Babar Azam has been quite muggy in recent times. He had only one solitary half-century during the four-match series against New Zealand at home, before registering 57,0, and 75 in the three-match series against Ireland.
In the recent series, he could play two knocks of 32 runs and 36-runs against England. Pakistan, the 2009 T20-champions, will start their campaign for this tournament against United States of America on June 06, at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.