Dallas (USA): Former India pacer Irfan Pathan took an indirect jibe at the Pakistan skipper Babar Azam for arguably the slowest innings played by him against the Monank Patel-led USA side saying "you aren't helping your team cause." The co-hosts USA pulled off an early upset by defeating one of the Pakistan in a Super Over thriller of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 at Grand Prairie Stadium here on Thursday.
Men in Green lost three wickets early on the Dallas surface, which was less tenacious and unpredictable compared to New York. Babar needed to bat through and play a long innings from one end at a healthy strike rate. However, the right-hand batter ended up scoring only 44 runs off 43 balls in the match at a strike rate of 102.33. Pakistan captain managed to collect only four runs off 14 balls during the fielding restrictions, resulting in Pakistan recording their fifth-lowest T20I powerplay score.
In a format where 200+ runs are being chased easily, the batters are now being judged on how fast they can score runs for their team and not averages. Despite being under pressure, cricket experts and commentators including Harsha Bhogle and Pathan didn't like the way Babar approached his innings against the USA, a team which is playing their first T20 World Cup.
Pathan slammed the Pakistan skipper for his knock and felt that Babar didn't help his team's cause. "On a fairly decent batting condition as a captain if you are playing 40+ ball innings with 100 strike rate. You aren't helping your team cause," Pathan wrote on X.
