Full support crucial for Babar Azam now, says Hafeez

Hafeez who appeared in the 2011 World Cup in India acknowledged it would be a tough challenge for the Pakistan team.

Lahore: Pakistan’s former captain and a member of the cricket board’s technical committee, Mohammad Hafeez, has called for supporting skipper Babar Azam and boosting his confidence ahead of next month’s World Cup in India.

In an interaction with the media on Saturday, Hafeez, referring to the criticism about Babar’s captaincy, said the top batter alone could not be blamed for Pakistan’s defeats in the Asia Cup.

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“It is not fair to just blame him for not reaching the Asia Cup final. We are not willing to give credit alone to the captain for reaching a final so why blame him alone for not reaching the Asia Cup final. Cricket is a team game,” Hafeez said.

He said right now the country’s cricket fraternity needs to support Babar and his team.

“These bunch of players have been playing together for a while now under Babar so if we take care of some weak areas, Pakistan remains among the top four favourites in the World Cup,” he added.

“We need to reflect where we went wrong and what is obvious is that our spinners didn’t deliver as expected and the injuries to Haris and Naseem did hurt us,” he said.

“Babar needs full support and it would be a folly to even think about changing the captain now,” he stated.

Hafeez who appeared in the 2011 World Cup in India acknowledged it would be a tough challenge for the Pakistan team.

“The problem is many of our players have limited exposure of playing in Indian conditions.

“It is a big challenge for any Pakistani player to play in India in a mega event and also do well, but hopefully, we can count on our players to come through. We shouldn’t let the Asia Cup disappointment spoil our optimism or support for the team.”