Australia’s legend player Ricky Ponting has recommended Babar Azam could take help from Virat Kohli’s approach to reconstruct his Test form and career, and he also stated about Mohammad Rizwan’s appointment as captain of Pakistan’s white-ball cricket.
After loosing from England in their first test in Multan, Pakistan’s consecutive home defeat total reaches to three in Test match in the season. The chief selectors from PCB rejected Babar Azam from squad so that he can take some rest, alongwith pacers Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah. Babar Azam having Test average of 20.9 since 2023.
Babar Azam’s return to the white-ball team under the captaincy of Mohammad Rizwan, follows a strategic decision by Pakistan’s team management to rest him during the Test series, which Pakistan won by 2-1, aiming to manage player workloads in busy international schedule.
In the first ODI against Australia, Babar Azam’s performance was good, making a score of 37, and has showed impressive return in the white-ball format, but Ponting remains worried about his return to the Test match.
“The biggest challenge is how they get Babar back into their side,” Ponting said in the ICC Review. “They’ve got to find a way to get Babar back into form and back into their [Test] team.”
Ponting suggested that Babar should act upon Kohli’s technique to rebuild his form againIn the start of this year, Kohli took a break from the game during India’s home series against England because of his personal matters.
After his return, he went on to play a match-winning game against South Africa in the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 – India’s first ICC trophy in 11 years.
In 2022, Kohli stepped down similarly for some time from the game after his low performance.
After his comeback, he scored his first international century since 2019, and showed brilliant performances across the formats over the next 12 months, including a match-winning game against Pakistan in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022, and a wonderful scorer in the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup at home, where he made a highest 765 runs, and was named Player of the Tournament.
“You know, when you look at (Babar’s) numbers, it’s been a bit like the stuff that we were talking about with Virat [Kohli] earlier on,” Ponting said. “Sometimes – and I think Virat was on record saying this – that little bit of a break that he had, he took himself away from the game for a while to freshen up and sort out some things that he needed to sort out.”
“This might be exactly what Babar needs. Maybe Babar needs to get away for a while and stop trying too hard. Lock the kit bag away for a while, and think about something else and then hopefully come back recharged, because we know at his best he’s as good as anyone going around. Hopefully we get to see that in the back half of his career again.”
After the ODI World Cup in 2023, Babar stepped down from captaincy across all formats. Pakistan then switched leaders multiple times, including switching back to Babar as the skipper ahead of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, before recently selecting Mohammad Rizwan.
“They’re continually changing leaders, (Shaheen) Afridi one day, Babar one day, Rizwan another day.
“Lots of changes going on around their white-ball stuff. You don’t like to see that instability, but I guess they’re trying to find something that works and they’re willing to make changes until they find something that works and they start getting the right outcomes.”
Ponting said the ongoing Australia tour would provide a good indication of Rizwan’s leadership skills. “He’s the sort of player that I love watching,” said Ponting. “Aggressive player that takes the game on, and wears his heart on his sleeve a little bit.
“I reckon you can see he gets quite emotional out on the field, out on the ground as well, which I think is a good thing. It tends to show that you really care about what you’re doing and what your team’s trying to achieve.
“So the proof will be in the pudding. I mean, we won’t know (until they) give him a decent run at it. They obviously feel he’s the right man for here and now. So I think in a few months time, or maybe in a few weeks time, even here in Australia with the one-dayers, the T20Is coming up, we might have a better idea in three or four weeks time.”
