Former Pakistan Younis Khan has thrown his weight behind current national white-ball captain Babar Azam, pointing out the lack of captaincy options in the country.
Babar Azam has been under fire following Pakistan’s lacklustre ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 campaign, where they got knocked out from the group stage.
Many fans and critics have attributed the Green Shirts’ disastrous performance to Babar’s captaincy and called for his removal as captain.
However, Younis Khan disagreed with the notion, highlighting the country’s inadequate cricket infrastructure. He blamed it for not preparing backup players to replace the struggling players.
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“We give our views very quickly. If we talk about our current team, the players don’t have a fault. Instead, I will blame the infrastructure. If we don’t have the back-up, how will you replace the (out of form) players?” Younis said during an interview with a local news channel.
He defended Babar and shifted the blame on previous management and selection committees for not building players who could lead the team.
“We generally speak that Babar Azam should not be the captain. If not Babar Azam, who else should be the captain? That’s not Babar Azam’s fault,” he added.
“Neither this is the current selection committee’s fault. This is the fault of something that happened 5-6 years back. We should have built our bench strength,” Younis Khan concluded.
It is worth noting that in the aftermath of Pakistan’s T20 World Cup debacle, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sacked Abdul Razzaq and Wahab Riaz from selection committee, while the latter also lost his job as senior team manager. Meanwhile, team manager Mansoor Rana was also removed from the post.
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