Published: Feb 26, 2025, 04:19 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 26, 2025, 04:19 PM (IST)
Babar Azam has been under fire for his consistent low outcomes that have had a massive toll on his image as Pakistan’s best cricketer. Babar recently became the fastest batter to score 6000 runs in ODI cricket, which showcased an explosive start to his career, but his performance in the past few years has not been so good for him.
Whatever the reason might be, the former Pakistan captain needs to find his form soon or else those days are not far when the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will start looking for some alternative players to bring in his place.
Amid these harsh criticism, former Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar has provided some highly-valuable insight to Babar, which might help him conquer his lean patch. Gavaskar advised Babar to to decrease the width of his stance, which will help him in standing upright and make precise judgements about the movement and bounce.
“If you ask me, I will tell Babar just one thing. Right now, his stance is quite spread out. If he can reduce the width between his feet, then two things will happen: one, when your feet are spread out, then you face difficulty going on the back foot and front foot but when you are more balanced (with feet less wide), then you also gain a bit of height, while you are a bit down with feet spread out. So you can judge the bounce and movement of the ball a bit better when you are more upright. And an opening batter needs that height,” said Gavaskar on Basit Ali’s YouTube channel.
“If he tries to do this, then I believe the run-making ability he used to have will return, and the whole world will enjoy that, not just the Pakistanis….The whole world wants to see him play shots like the flick through mid-wicket he produced (in the match against India),” he added.
Meanwhile, Pakistan, the team from the hosting nation, is already out of the race to semifinal of the Champions Trophy 2025 as they have lost their opening two clashes against New Zealand and India. Their last league match is a dead-rubber, which will be against Bangladesh, another team that is knocked out of the race to semifinals.
