Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja has criticized the team management for splitting the opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in the ongoing T20I series against New Zealand.The duo formed the most prolific opening pair in T20I history, with 2400 runs at an average of almost 49.Speaking on his YouTube channel, Raja questioned the reasoning behind breaking up the Babar-Rizwan opening pair.
So much pressure was created to break the opening pair of Babar and Rizwan. After breaking the opening partnership, which was evaluated based on the strike rate. When you bring in new players, they may perform well in leagues, but international cricket is a different beast where there is pressure, and the focus of the entire world is on you. You broke the opening pair that was famous worldwide," said Raja."Either you have workshop of trained openers behind you who are gradually being introduced, when you have no other options. It takes time to form an opening pair. It's not an easy task. So, if you have a pair, and they consistently kept you in the field during matches, what benefit did you get after breaking it?," he added.
Ramiz Raja also addressed the accusations of bias towards Babar Azam, clarifying that his support extends to any individual who captains the Pakistan side.Babar Azam, who captained Pakistan in 134 matches across various formats, achieved an impressive record of 78 victories, resulting in a winning percentage of over 58. However, despite his success, Babar faced criticism for some of his tactical decisions and a decline in his batting form during the previous year's ODI World Cup. Consequently, he made the decision to step down from his captaincy role in all three formats.
The accusation made against me was that I backed Babar Azam. I support every captain because their role is to lead not just on the field during the game, but also extends to off the field as well," stated Raja.Pakistan has appointed Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi as replacements for Babar Azam to lead the side in Tests and T20Is, respectively. Unfortunately, the duo has had a challenging start
