Easy to give opinion on TV: Babar Azam defends Pakistan captaincy amid criticism

Hitting back at critics for questioning his leadership skills Pakistan skipper Babar Azam on Friday said it is easy to give opinion on TV and asserted that captaincy had no adverse impact on his batting in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023Azam has been in the eye of storm after their embarrassing eightwicket defeat against Afghanistan and for failing to defend 271 against South Africa who they had reduced to 260 for nineFormer skippers including Moin Khan and Shoaib Malik have openly criticised Babars captaincy on air and felt that the burden of leadership has affected his battingIts very easy to give opinion on TV If someone wishes to offer advice they are welcome to call me directly my number is known to everyone Babar said referring to the criticismMalik had contended that Babar was was king as a batsman but not as a leaderThe guy who is most responsible is the captain Malik had saidAlso ReadFandom at its finestMoin had opined that Babar should learn from Indian batter Virat Kohli who is now more focussed on batting after quitting captaincyHe would have been better playing as a batsman than leading this team Look at Kohli said MoinBabar held firm and said his form was never affected by the criticismsI have been captaining my team for the last three years and I have never felt this way Its just because I have not performed the way I should have in the World Cup thats why people are saying that I am under pressureI dont think I was under any pressure or felt any different because of this I try to give my best in the field during the fielding During batting I think about how I should make runs and make the team win he saidFacing a barrage of questions from Pakistani journalists including the possibility of stepping down from the captaincy Babar remained steadfast and composed playing with a straight batI have no idea what decisions you are talking about The decisions we make here regarding selections of players are the decision of the coaches and the captainWe go with the best combination of conditions and situations Sometimes we have succeeded and sometimes we haventAbout the captaincy as I said once we go back to Pakistan or after this match we will see what happens But right now I am not focusing on this my focus is on the next matchIn a disastrous World Cup campaign Babar 282 runs hit four halfcenturies but could convert his any of the starts into a tripledigit score which has hurt the team badlyNew Zealands fivewicket win with 160 balls to spare over Sri Lanka on Thursday has almost ended Pakistans hope to make the semifinalPakistan now have to win against England by an astronomical margin here on Saturday to overtake New Zealands net runrate and seal a lastfour berthBabar said their losses to Afghanistan and South Africa have cost them badlyWe should have won our matches against South Africa and Afghanistan because of which we are at this stage We will try our best to finish on a good note You never know this is cricket Babar said of the match against EnglandYou cannot say that it is the fault of bowling fielding or batting As a team we could not execute We cannot say that we got so many runs in bowling or lost runs in fielding As a team we did not execute the plan or play as per the demand that includes bowling batting and fieldingAlso ReadBruised but not batteredBabar also refused to agree that the teams performance has dipped sharply since the 1999 World CupBecause we havent done well in this World Cup or the last World Cup you cant say that we havent done well since 99 we have dominated and we were number one in Oneday Yes we are not able to finish well We will work on that and finish wellTheir lack of experience in playing in India has also affected them said the skipperWe came here for the first time We didnt have the awareness of how to take it but we adapted as soon as possible in practice that we will have to face it like thisTo be honest we got a lot of love from India a lot of support Not only me the entire team Of course I was not able to get a good finish he saidWith inputs from agencies