Former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ramiz Raja has stated that Babar Azam’s batting against spinners is “problematic” after the right-hander was removed by Moeen Ali in the second T20I against England in Birmingham on Saturday.
Babar was well-set on the crease but he looked helpless against Ali and was trapped with an LBW after scoring 32 runs on 26 balls. Following the skipper’s dismissal, Pakistan continued to lose wickets and failed to build a long partnership.
Raja talked about Babar’s struggle against spin bowling saying he needs to play a wide range of shots and use his footwork to dominate the spinners.
"Babar Azam’s batting against spin is a problem. He was batting well against pace but whenever spinners come on, he becomes static, whether it is leg-spin or off-spin," Ramiz Raja said on his YouTube channel.
“Either he has to play reverse sweep, sweep shot or switch hit against spin or he has to use his footwork and dominate the spinners because that domination factor ends as soon as a spinner comes [to bowl]. So, Babar needs to work a lot on this area.”
The former chairman of PCB then said that England is a complete team as they have power-hitters till number 8 and also have a very good lineup which would make it difficult to win against them.
“Playing against England here will be not easy in terms of a win as they have gunslingers from number 1 to 7-8 position. They also have an all-round strength in bowling. They have two good spinners, in pace they have Jofra Archer, and Chris Jordan,” he added.
“Pakistan can no longer play with [the mindset of] 160 runs, they have to score 180 or more because the pitch was simple and in this [modern age], you can easily score 180 without taking much risk.”
- Babar Azam
- Ramiz Raja