Ricky Ponting Advises Babar Azam to Follow Virat Kohli’s Path and Take a Break for Career Revival
Ricky Ponting, the former Australian captain, suggested that Babar Azam should take a break from cricket to protect his career, just like Virat Kohli did. Ponting believes that a break could help Babar refresh and come back stronger.
Pakistan’s selection panel made a bold decision to drop Babar Azam from the second and third tests against England. Babar struggled to score runs in the first test series at Multan, even on a flat pitch. As a result, the panel also dropped Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah, making some significant changes to the team lineup.
Babar Azam hasn’t scored a Test fifty since December 2022 and struggled throughout the year, often getting out cheaply. After being dropped from the test team, he made a comeback in the ODI side for the Australian tour. In the first ODI, Babar showed resilience, scoring a solid 37 runs despite the pressure.
Ricky Ponting, while reviewing the performance of Babar Azam and Virat Kohli, said:
You know, when you look at (Babar’s) numbers, it’s been a bit like the stuff that we were talking about with Virat [Kohli] earlier on,” Ponting said. “Sometimes – and I think Virat was on record saying this – that little bit of a break that he had, he took himself away from the game for a while to freshen up and sort out some things that he needed to sort out”.
Between 2021 and July 2022, Virat Kohli struggled with his form. The former India captain had a tough time scoring runs and like Babar Azam, became easy to dismiss. Though he slowed flashes of his brilliance, he couldn’t turn those moments into big scores.
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