Former India cricketer Rohan Gavaskar came out in support of Pakistan captain Babar Azam. Gavaskar insisted that the right-handed batter holds the ability to change gears.
Gavaskar said that the Pakistan skipper is a quality batter and that his second-innings strike rate is better than his first. To call him a one-dimensional player is a little harsh because he is a quality-quality player. And if anything, the numbers suggest that he is not one-dimensional. The fact that he can change gears and you look at his numbers from the first innings to the second innings, Gavakar said.
Babar has struggled to get going when Pakistan bat first, but his strike-rate improves massively when his team is chasing a total.
In the first innings, his strike rate is about 125; in the second innings his strike rate is about 137, which shows that he has the ability to change gears.
I think it is a mental mindset with Babar. Fear of failure. And when I say fear of failure, I don’t mean fear of failure as a batter. I could be wrong here; he feels that the Pakistan team revolves around his batting. So, when he is batting first, he feels that he’s got to stay long because if he fails, the team might fail and that can sometimes shackle a player, Gavaskar added.