A Leader vs A Top Performer

God could have made us win the world cup. If we can reach the finals from nowhere and almost out of the tournament, Shaheen could have stayed fit for few more minutes, there could have been a bit more luck to win us the world cup but this would have set a wrong precedent, this would have given a boost to Babar’s ego and that is the only reason God decided to go other way in my opinion. Luck favors the brave and everyone in our team fought very bravely except our captain Babar.

Since last 3 series I have been a strong critic of his (Babar’s) approach. We all know that we have been struggling with our middle order and also, we know that Babar tried each possible combination but only thing which he did not try is him coming one down and let Haris or any other potential player open the innings. Results would have been different if we would have gone with some fearless batting in the powerplays and then Babar coming one down, carrying that momentum and then have a finisher like Asif to close the innings but we had no plan, literally no plan. At one stage it looked like that the Babar’s plan was to play with as much batsman as possible and hoping at least 1,2 would have their day (koi na koi to chal hi jai ga). We had no roles defined in our batting lineup, what he used to do is just shuffle the batting order without any logic and thinking, sending Shadab up, sending Nawaz up, Fakhar one down etc. Luckily, Nawaz performed well, up the order against India in the Asia cup and gave us the hope of middle order getting clicked but he was not sent up the order in any match going forward same like the day our captain said “Nawaz tu mara match winner hy” in his speech and didn’t give him even one over in the next match.

There is a lot going on in the dressing room which we (the spectators) are not aware of. I am sure a lot of stories would come out as Babar leaves captaincy (If he does) as players are not going against him at the moment just to assure their place in playing 11. Everyone is trying hard to avail the chance they are getting and making the most out of it, putting behind the fact if its their natural position to play or not.

It is certainly not the way to enforce youngsters like Haider, Haris, Asif, Shan or any other to be responsible for middle order specially in the big occasions like WC. Yes, you can try them in some xyz series and if someone shows potential, you can go ahead and this is how you build the team. But we all know that youngsters are being enforced to play in odd positions which are not natural to them just because Babar wants to open the innings. Asif was a hero, not a very long ago but there is no place of him in the team now, everyone loved Haider’s technique and potential but he did not perform. It’s no coincidence neither does it mean that they do not have potential, its just that they are unluckily under a coward leader.

I have nothing against Babar. He is arguably the best batsman in the world at the moment but we have to understand that there is a difference between a performer and a leader. He is improving, he might win us worldcup or any other trophy in the future but the question is, can he win us the WC which just passed? Hoping to see him improving, not letting his ego overcoming the Team’s performance. I know Babar’s blind followers are going to kill me after that but other than a fifty in Semi-Final, you do not have anything to defend for him, that too came in a situation where our bowlers restricted the opposition to a chasable total, Babar and Rizwan had a room and space to plan their innings according to their natural play. Had that been a high total, out batting would have collapsed as usual.

But so many positives happened in the world cup as well. We have found gems in our bowling attack, we have found fighters in batting, doesn’t matter which position they are sent to.

The best thing happened was, so called Indian greats got exposed of their low character. Specially Irfan Pathan, Muhammad Kaif and Muhammad Shami. The point here to notice that they all are Muslims, IDK whether they are still trying to prove their loyalty for India or what but they showed that they have no “GRACE” same like they do not have ability to win or even reach the Final.

?#t20worldcup2022 #pakvseng #babarazam #leadership