Former Test cricketer Umar Akmal has criticised Babar Azam, attributing Pakistan cricket team’s present difficulties to his leadership.
“Babar was captain for nearly five years, most of the time in all formats, and he never tried to build the bench strength due to his likes and dislikes,” Umar told a TV channel.
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The 34-year-old Umar, who last represented the national team in 2019, openly expressed his disapproval of Babar’s captaincy style, suggesting that he lacked strategic foresight.
The host nation Pakistan, who are the title holders, began their Champions Trophy tournament poorly, suffering a defeat against New Zealand in their first match. This loss has significantly reduced their prospects of advancing to the semifinal stage.
Babar led Pakistan from the end of 2019 through late 2023, stepping aside after the 2023 ODI World Cup. While he returned to captain the white-ball teams in 2024, he gave up leadership duties following a poor showing at the T20 World Cup.
Akmal said he had reached out to Babar requesting an opportunity to return to the national side as he had been performing well and accumulating runs in domestic matches.
“I told Babar, ‘look give me a fair chance. You are doing well in the top order and I can be your finisher and we can win matches regularly and it will be good for Pakistan cricket’,” he said.
But Babar didn’t bother, Akmal said.
“He didn’t listen to me and for five years when he was captain he never bothered to try to build a strong bench because only teams with good back up players do consistently well in all formats,” Akmal added.
Umar, a cousin of Babar, had played 16 Tests, 121 ODIs and 84 T20Is for Pakistan before being dropped from the squad in 2019.
