Danish Kaneria Slams Babar Azam, Rizwan for Lackluster Performance in ICC Champions Trophy
Former Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria has slammed leading Pakistani batsmen Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan for their poor performance in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy. Kaneria criticised Babar for his weak intent against big teams and scoring massive runs against smaller countries.
The Champions Trophy 2025 is proving to be a bad one for Rizwan and Babar. Both have performed poorly in the recent matches against India and New Zealand. They scored 87 and 49 runs respectively in the two matches. Chasing a target of 321 runs in the first match against New Zealand, Babar scored 64 runs in 90 balls. Babar was heavily criticized for his slow innings. Rizwan, on the other hand, played a very slow innings against India and scored 46 runs in 77 balls. As a result, his team could only score 241 runs and lost the match and were out of the tournament.
Talking about the performance of Pakistani batsmen during an interview, Kaneria said,
"Babar hasn't scored runs for so long, but when he scores, he makes against Zimbabwe or smaller teams. If he scores runs against big teams, he doesn't seem to have any intent. There is no depth in batting. Salman Agha and Khushdil Shah occasionally contribute something. Saud Shakeel is technically the right batsman. But Rizwan's bat stops working. When the Champions Trophy squad was announced, one could see it being eliminated from the tournament very soon. "
Babar Azam has not scored any international century since August 2023. The last time he played a big innings was against Nepal in the Asia Cup 2023 and scored 151 runs. Since then, Babar has played 24 ODIs and scored 753 runs at an average of 37.65, including seven half-centuries. Rizwan, on the other hand, has played 14 ODIs between 2024-25, scoring 484 runs in 12 innings at an average of 53.78 with a century and two half-centuries.
When Kaneria was asked if Rizwan should continue as the captain of the limited-overs team, he said that he should continue as there are already many experienced captains like Babar, Rizwan and Shaheen in the dressing room.
"When you change so many captains, make so many changes and don't show trust, the question arises why does the board appoint one as the captain?"
But Kaneria also took a dig at the Pakistan Cricket Board, saying that they need to "yes-in-yes" to their captains and that is why captains like Rizwan are present as captains. He also said that there is a possibility that the focus will now be on left-handed batsman Saud Shakeel to become the next captain, but added that a player who is currently performing well should not bear the burden of captaincy.
Danish believes that if Rizwan relinquishes the captaincy, Fakhar Zaman can be in the discussion of becoming the captain.