Credit: Twitter
The captain of Pakistan, Babar Azam, has been the subject of a lot of criticism from the fans, for his lack of big scores in the ODI World Cup 2023, which is currently being held in India. In his previous innings against Australia, the 29-year-old was bizarrely out in a similar way, just like his dismissal against the Netherlands earlier in the flagship tournament, which is getting intensely scrutinised on social media.
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On Friday, October 20, during the pursuit of 368 run target against Australia, Babar Azam walked into the middle after the Pakistan openers Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq set a decent platform, with a first wicket stand of 134 runs. But, when the premier batter for Pakistan was at the individual score of 18, he couldn’t keep the ball down while executing a pull shot on the short delivery from the leg spinner Adam Zampa before the captain Pat Cummins completed a stunning catch at mid-wicket.
More often than not, the aforementioned dismissal can happen to any batter on a random occasion, but in the case of Babar Azam, it is getting analysed time and again, because of its repetitiveness in quadrennial spectacle. Notably, in their first match of the ODI World Cup 2023 for Pakistan against Netherlands, the off spinner Colin Ackermann had picked up the wicket of Babar Azam for 5, in exactly the same manner like his Australian counterpart, getting him holed out to mid wicket off Saqib Zulfiqar.
Watch the similarity of two dismissals of Babar Azam here:
In the ODI World Cup 2023, after four batting innings, Babar Azam has managed to put together just 83 runs, at an average of 20.75, culminating in his team winning only two matches thus far. The highest individual score for the 29-year-old was against India, the innings ending for just 50 runs off 58 balls, which is something he will be looking to improve as the flagship tournament goes on.
