"Playing spin is not a problem as Asian players play spin very well" : Babar Azam

[MenInG]

Babar Azam speaking at the end of the 3rd T20I:

"The team fought to the end but I feel that we were short by 10-15 runs due to which we are a little behind in this game; Also we couldn't get anyone else to create a good partnership with Rizwan and if that happened, the result could have been a different one; Our bowlers did put in a good effort and when you do that it increases my confidence in this side, regardless of the result; All our bowlers bowled outstandingly well today"

"We performed very well in the 1st T20I but unfortunately we couldn't carry on in that way in the next game; We tend to lose wickets quickly which put pressure on our us - this is something we need to improve upon as good teams will not allow you a way back if you make such mistakes; We will need to learn to take a little time on settle ourselves whenever a wicket falls; Hopefully this will not happen in the next series"

"We have chased and set targets many times in the past so there is no logic in saying that we don't know how to go about this and have lost games due to that or we lost because we played one batsman or bowler less; You lose due to small mistakes and not because you didn't play a certain player in your team"

"Playing spin is not a problem as Asian players play spin very well; The problem is that when quick wickets fall, that puts pressure on the team and we need to cut down on such mistakes; We had partnership between Fakhar and Rizwan but no other partnership was constructed after that; The spinners bowled well and got wickets against us although you can say that there were one or 2 bad shots played by us"

"We aimed to get 150-170 as the wicket was a little slow and I am very happy that spinners and Hassan Ali bowled so well and others also did the role they were asked to perform"

"Rizwan is in great form as is Fakhar Zaman so we intend to carry on with this; Our fielding is improving day by day, and our bowling made a great comeback today and we bowled well; With the T20 World Cup coming up soon, the less mistakes we make the better it will be for all of us"

[MenInG]

Think the first step towards improving yourself is to accept that you have a problem.

Babar's statement on spin to me last night is a failure in that regard.

2 successive failures of Pakistan's Asian batsmen to negotiate spin tells me we aren't that great.

[andy0204]

Gotta be kidding me,
Struggled against Kuldeep and Maharaj and still not able to accept the mistakes.

[Energy]

All our bowlers bowled outstandingly well today.

OK. His script is written by an 8 year old.

[Last Monetarist]

Babar Azam is one of the worst (elite) players of spin that I have seen. Sure he can bully around part-time finger-spinners, but on most occasions he comes up against a decent wrist-spinner he tends to tie himself in knots. He was bamboozled by Kuldeep Yadav at the last World Cup, but it seems he has done nothing over the last two years on his inability to read wrist-spinners from the hand.

This latest statement is indicative of the horrible mentality that has plagued Pakistan cricket since the retirements of Javed Miandad and Imran Khan.

[Barragan]

Actually, there is a problem.

Except for Rizwan, Sarfraz and Zaman, the rest look uncomfortable.

Hafeez was a magnificent player of spin, but he is done as a batsman and can't even handle spin anymore.

Outside of the current squad, Malik and chacha Ifti are the only two that you can say play well against spin.

Not many more I can think of......

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

Babar lost 5 games out of 6. He has no idea how bad that is in a results business.

Zero awareness of what the future should look like. That is why if Babar has to be captain, someone else will have to do strategic thinking.

Someone who is not Misbah.

[Afhan Ali]

He always struggle against spin. If he doesn't improve this. He should never be above Inzi, Younas, Yousaf etc.

[cricketjoshila]

Disappointing from Babar. At his age he should identify his mistakes and try to correct them. But he isn't interested it seems.

A good manager or coach should tell him that even players like KP wrote emails to Dravid to understand the nuances of playing spin. And thats only one example.

[MP2011]

"Playing spin is not a problem as Asian players play spin very well;

A very generalized statement to make on behalf of as many as 4 test-playing nations. I can speak for us and we are one of the most miserable players of spin. Those days when we used to be the best in business in this aspect are long gone.

[MenInG]

Disappointing from Babar. At his age he should identify his mistakes and try to correct them. But he isn't interested it seems.

A good manager or coach should tell him that even players like KP wrote emails to Dravid to understand the nuances of playing spin. And thats only one example.

I think lack of education is a problem.

I really want PCB to send Babar to night school - as part of his central contract requirements.

[Cpt. Rishwat]

His diagnosis that "We tend to lose wickets quickly which put pressure on our us" is a strange one. Pakistan lost wickets because they executed their shots badly and that was because too few of them understood spin bowling.

It seems he is hinting that Pakistan needs to play more carefully, but you can't really do that in a T20 game. A better solution would be to play percentage shots instead of charging blindly out of the crease without fully understanding the bowling. Or just pick up more ones and twos and keep the scoreboard moving.

[MenInG]

His diagnosis that "We tend to lose wickets quickly which put pressure on our us" is a strange one. Pakistan lost wickets because they executed their shots badly and that was because too few of them understood spin bowling.

It seems he is hinting that Pakistan needs to play more carefully, but you can't really do that in a T20 game. A better solution would be to play percentage shots instead of charging blindly out of the crease without fully understanding the bowling. Or just pick up more ones and twos and keep the scoreboard moving.

Hear hear.

This would avoid situations like this one.

[WengerOut]

Babar is relatively poor playing spin, but he is better than Virat at his peak. He is only 27 and will be better. You look at Virat, he is 33 and still plays poorly.

[zacattakk]

"Playing spin is not a problem as Asian players play spin very well......"

Well Babar, it really looked like a problem.

Our players lack of insight in to their technical deficiencies is a long running issue. They either dont realize when they have a problem or they are just in denial. Even Hafeez, who is supposed to be a good player of spin looked awful. Babar has been dismissed cheaply by spinners on numerous occasions and hasn't shown any real improvement.

Its actually a weird answer. Not WE play spin very well, but ASIAN PLAYERS play spin very well. As in just because we are Asian so we are automatically good against spin regardless of what you see on the pitch and whether we actually practice it and work on our game or not.

[Ahmed216]

Pak cricket is now replete with mediocrity. The refusal to acknowledge something so evident speaks volumes about the mentality of our players.
Lack of knowledge,insight,retrospection has meant we enter the field with no or poor planning.

[Savak]

Babar is relatively poor playing spin, but he is better than Virat at his peak. He is only 27 and will be better. You look at Virat, he is 33 and still plays poorly.

Kohli overall has been on the decline for the last 3 years. He has played a tremendous amount of Cricket for India since his debut in 2009 in all formats including the IPL. I wonder if the body of work has caught up with him now

[Ashraful_Rox]

The best players of spin were Indians of the past, Sachin, Sourav, David etc. Current Indian lot seems to struggle even against Lyon who would have went for 1 - 400 against old India. Pakistan kind of struggled against Warne while India treated Warne like a net bowler.

[WengerOut]

Kohli overall has been on the decline for the last 3 years. He has played a tremendous amount of Cricket for India since his debut in 2009 in all formats including the IPL. I wonder if the body of work has caught up with him now

He was never a great player of quality spin. He could smash some on non turning pitches. Thats about it. But yeah generally he is on a downward slope as well. Even those customary chases are not happening these days.

[UzmanBeast]

Actually, there is a problem.

Except for Rizwan, Sarfraz and Zaman, the rest look uncomfortable.

Hafeez was a magnificent player of spin, but he is done as a batsman and can't even handle spin anymore.

Outside of the current squad, Malik and chacha Ifti are the only two that you can say play well against spin.

Not many more I can think of......

Fakhar is also horrible against right-arm off spin. He only does well against leg-spinners because he can read the ball from the hand, but even he struggles against finger spin because his foot-movement is not that good for the ball turning away from his bat.

[UzmanBeast]

He was never a great player of quality spin. He could smash some on non turning pitches. Thats about it. But yeah generally he is on a downward slope as well. Even those customary chases are not happening these days.

One of the factors is also perhaps the fact that both don't really play sweep shots, which are very effective against spinners.

I do fail to understand why both don't incorporate those shots into their game, because it would make them both into far better players.

[Bhaag Viru Bhaag]

It seems he read that line straight from the sports section of 1998 Dawn newspaper.

[WengerOut]

One of the factors is also perhaps the fact that both don't really play sweep shots, which are very effective against spinners.

I do fail to understand why both don't incorporate those shots into their game, because it would make them both into far better players.

The line of thought nowadays is that it is a high risk shot for not such high reward. Conventional sweep not slog sweep.

[Kaddy]

Babar is relatively poor playing spin, but he is better than Virat at his peak. He is only 27 and will be better. You look at Virat, he is 33 and still plays poorly.

Oh come on, Kohli's overall performance has gone down in the last two years but during his peak days, he was good against spin.

He wasn't as great as some past Indian batsmen were but still he was much better than current Babar Azam who is just an okay batsman against spin in white ball cricket and below average in test cricket.

Babar will have to improve his game against spin if he really wants to become an elite batsman.

[cricketjoshila]

I think lack of education is a problem.

I really want PCB to send Babar to night school - as part of his central contract requirements.

Doesn't he have any formal education?

I disagree, the zeal to improve oneself comes from within, not from any formal education. You think making Babbar the captain and the players and experts hyping him up has gone to his head?

Babbar is a very skilled batsman, it would be sad if he doesn't fulfill his potential due to the superstar culture.

[Kaddy]

I think these are the situations where you need a good mentor/caoch, who can tell him that he and other Pakistani players actually have issues against spin.
Asian batsmen are good against spin is an old statement. If he seriously thinks that the guy like Sohaib Maqsood is good against spin then God save us.

Currently the best Pakistani player of spin in white ball cricket is Shoaib Malik whose debut year is 1999, tells us the sorry state of affairs of Pakistan cricket.

[MenInG]

Doesn't he have any formal education?

I disagree, the zeal to improve oneself comes from within, not from any formal education. You think making Babbar the captain and the players and experts hyping him up has gone to his head?

Babbar is a very skilled batsman, it would be sad if he doesn't fulfill his potential due to the superstar culture.

What I mean is that just like you and me, during our professional development would read up on ways to enhance our skills or make them more upto date, I expect Babar to be a bit more aware of what is happening and not repeat the party line.

[cricketjoshila]

What I mean is that just like you and me, during our professional development would read up on ways to enhance our skills or make them more upto date, I expect Babar to be a bit more aware of what is happening and not repeat the party line.

If this is the party line, its disappointing.

[Saj]

Compare the current lot to YK, Yousuf and Inzamam, Miandad etc and you will clearly see just how much we have regressed when it comes to playing spin-bowling.

[NishanKonar]

The best players of spin were Indians of the past, Sachin, Sourav, David etc. Current Indian lot seems to struggle even against Lyon who would have went for 1 - 400 against old India. Pakistan kind of struggled against Warne while India treated Warne like a net bowler.

Lyon had a hard time against India in the recent series Down Under

[sharmaji]

It's not true. Many non-Asians play spin better than Asians these days. Root is an example. Buttler is another. Smith and Labuschagne too. Heck, Roy played spin the best in the last night's match with all the sweeps and reverse-sweeps.

I watched the highlights of the match and am surprised how docile Babar came across in the post-match Q&A session; as he was fired up during the match and it was quite exciting to see.

[BunnyRabbit]

Shoaib Malik is the best player of spin in Pakistan currently. Fakhar is only good against wrist spinners. Think a recall for wt20 would be better for the team. He looks like a different batter in Asia.

[Ami]

What do you expect him to say, I'm crap against spin, in public?

Just get off your high horse people, I'm sure he is aware of his defencies and is working to improve...

Buttler too struggled against spin and if he made a similar statement, no one would bat an eye lid.

The Pakistani team.just gets a bad press, no matter what.

Pak team is a mediocre team and the results show ot

[Local.Dada]

What do you expect him to say? Our team/ I suck at spin or can’t play spin?

Anyways all these captains same to stick to a script given to them by the managers.

They all sound robotic. All Kohli answers also follow a template only difference is Babar might be answering them in Urdu. The westerners sound diplomatic too. It’s only when they get out of syllabus questions they might get triggered and give us some Masala

His answers are fine as long as he didn’t go full Muhammad Ali/ Mike Tyson and call himself the greatest ever.

[UzmanBeast]

The line of thought nowadays is that it is a high risk shot for not such high reward. Conventional sweep not slog sweep.

Yes, but I've always felt that it is an excellent shot which can help change the opposing captain's plans.

Both batsmen have good wrists allowing them to flick the ball into the leg side, so pair that with a good conventional sweep, and you get the ability to toy with the field and bring more guys on the leg-side, and we all know how good the two are on the off-side.

I think that it would take both to the next level as far as dominating against spinners goes.

[Shazzam]

What do you expect him to say, I'm crap against spin, in public?

I see nothing wrong with him saying this. In fact he’d get more respect if he told the truth. Why is a cricketer admitting his fault a sign of weakness?

[Manzy2599]

What do you expect him to say, I'm crap against spin, in public?

Just get off your high horse people, I'm sure he is aware of his defencies and is working to improve...

Buttler too struggled against spin and if he made a similar statement, no one would bat an eye lid.

The Pakistani team.just gets a bad press, no matter what.

Pak team is a mediocre team and the results show ot

It’s not about saying I’m crap or not. The fact is that he sounds so delusional when he makes a statement like that. Some of the worst Pakistan collapses in recent times have happened VS spin even at their fortress in UAE where they failed to chase many low scores like the SL 2-0 loss and the NZ series where they lost by 4 runs. Which team loses a test by 4 runs..

Then they come out with these statements “Asian players are good vs spin” so then why did most of the team get out to spinners throughout the series, often with very poor shots. Misbah is starting to run off on babar which is clearly evident now. Misbah never accepts responsibility whenever he is criticized and often shifts the blame and makes these kind of excuses without looking at reality.

Firstly this management is so backwards and stubborn and often clue less vs the big sides. Then they don’t want to admit the bitter truth which is the first step to improving yourself. If your constantly in denial the cycle will keep repeating and Pakistan cricket will continue to suffer.

[sweep_shot]

I think it is a myth that Asian players play spin better. It used to be true but not anymore.

Also, I believe quality of spin bowling worldwide has gone down.