"This Part Of The World You Get Vilified...": Ex England Captain Backs Under Fire Babar Azam

Star batter Babar Azam has been under the scanner after Pakistan suffered its first cleansweep at home by England under his captaincy. Pakistan lost to England Tuesday in the third and final Test in Karachi by eight wickets, after going down in the first two matches by 74 runs in Rawalpindi and 26 in Multan. Babar Azam has, however, said he has no intention of giving up the Pakistan captaincy despite overseeing a first-ever 3-0 Test series whitewash at home, saying that leading the side was "a matter of honour".

Now, former England captain Nasser Hussain has backed Babar. "So I love watching Babar play, and he's under immense pressure. He's carrying a batting line-up, in the World T20 I think it was the first time I have ever since Babar looked out of nick. I think he'll end up in all-time great, I wish people will cut him a little bit of slack because he'll go through periods when he doesn't get runs, and in this part of the world you get absolutely vilified. But you won't realise how good Babar Azam is until he's gone because he is that much of a special talent," Hussain said in an interaction with Crickwick on YouTube.

After the series loss, Babar was asked if he would quit the captaincy to concentrate on batting. He told a news conference he still enjoyed the challenge.

"Captaincy is a matter of honour for me. I will do whatever best I can for my country and for myself," he said. "I enjoy it more when under pressure and it doesn't affect my batting." 

But Azam acknowledged his disappointment at the result of the series. "We could not apply ourselves in the series," said Azam, who suffered his sixth defeat in 16 Tests as skipper. I keep Pakistan first and the rest after that. So that motive and my aim is paramount," he said.

With AFP inputs

Topics mentioned in this article

England Cricket Team Pakistan Cricket Team Babar Azam Nasser Hussain Cricket