{"id":828107,"date":"2026-03-15T20:18:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T20:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/828107\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T20:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T20:18:33","slug":"babar-azam-doesnt-have-a-voice-former-pakistan-batter-cites-virat-kohli-example-in-t20-world-cup-rant-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/828107\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Babar Azam doesn’t have a voice’: Former Pakistan batter cites Virat Kohli example in T20 World Cup rant | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'BabarBabar Azam and Virat Kohli (Agency Image) The decision to push Babar Azam<\/a> down to No.4 during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup created plenty of debate in Pakistan, and the experiment ultimately failed to deliver. The former Pakistan captain endured a difficult campaign as he struggled to accelerate in the middle order throughout the 20-team tournament.The situation worsened as the competition progressed. Babar was not sent out to bat in Pakistan\u2019s must-win group-stage clash against Namibia. Later, he was also left out of the Super 8 fixture against Sri Lanka, a match where the Green Shirts had to secure a victory by at least 65 runs to keep their semi-final hopes alive. <\/p>\n

IPL 2026 should be audition for the next India T20I captain<\/p>\n

Former Pakistan batter Basit Ali has now criticised how the situation was handled, saying Babar should have strongly opposed the decision to move him down the order. According to Basit, the batter should have challenged head coach Mike Hesson rather than accepting the role.Speaking on the \u2018Game Plan\u2019 show, Basit also cited Virat Kohli<\/a> as an example while discussing how top players sometimes take strong stands.<\/p>\n

Poll<\/p>\n

Do you agree with Basit Ali\u2019s view on player voicing their concerns?<\/p>\n

\u201cBabar Azam and Fakhar Zaman<\/a> don’t have a voice. How come they agreed to bat in the middle order?\u201d said Basit on the \u2018Game Plan\u2019 show.\u201cI just have one example. Virat Kohli was not made the captain, he said, \u2018Okay bye\u2019. Virat Kohli. He took the retirement; he should have been made the captain for the England series. He was told that you are not in our scheme of things as far as captaincy goes. He said, \u2018Okay, tata, bye-bye.\u2019 He doesn’t have a shortage of money. Babar should not have accepted the decision to bat at No.4. If I were his close aide, I would have told him to refuse. You just threw him under the bus,\u201d he added.Kohli had announced his retirement from Test cricket in May last year. However, there has been no official confirmation that the decision was linked to captaincy matters. Following the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Kohli, Shubman Gill was appointed India\u2019s Test captain. Under his leadership, India went on to draw the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against England.Meanwhile, former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal disagreed with Basit\u2019s view, arguing that players rarely challenge team management, especially when they are struggling for form.\u201cNo player dares to go against the team management. I have just seen Younis Khan being adamant about his position. As a player, you just cannot say that. You will be thrown into the sidelines if you say such things,\u201d said Akmal.\u201cWhen the form is not there, no player says such things. Before the Champions Trophy, his form was not there. He had left the captaincy. Big players even agree to such things. The form is very important. When form is not there, a batter would even agree to bat at No.8,\u201d he added.\"Banner<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Babar Azam and Virat Kohli (Agency Image) The decision to push Babar Azam down to No.4 during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[5911,237788,1406,33499,88479,237791,30565,237789,79,16,15,4221,237790,237792],"class_list":{"0":"post-828107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-babar-azam","9":"tag-babar-azam-batting-order","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-fakhar-zaman","12":"tag-icc-mens-t20-world-cup","13":"tag-kamran-akmal","14":"tag-pakistan-cricket-team","15":"tag-pakistan-t20-world-cup-performance","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-virat-kohli","20":"tag-virat-kohli-captaincy-e","21":"tag-younis-khan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116235043441013160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}