Image Credit- AFP
Not as short as you might have thought, the ball
wasn’t. Not quite a half-tracker gimme, though. It was fuller, actually a nice
length, quite straight, and had some surface zip. Additionally, Adam Zampa
delivered the message, so please show some respect for his intention and
ability.
But even so. Here was the opportunity that the game
had set up for Babar Azam—a moment with a capital M. On a small ground, a true
surface, a fast outfield, and an attack with little spin options, Pakistan was
175 for 2 with 193 to get from just under 24 overs. There’s no cakewalking to a
chase of 369 in a World Cup game against Australia ever, but it’s fair to say
that last Friday at the Chinnaswamy, with this line-up, was probably Pakistan’s
best opportunity for it.
Babar had faced three balls since hitting his
fantastic checked punch through mid-on for four and was on 18 at the time. That
was the kind of shot that splits your mind in two, with one half wondering if
Australia is missing one or two fielders and the other half wondering if today
is Babar’s day.
After clearing his front leg to that Zampa delivery,
he experienced some mild cramping and pulled a midwicket throw to Pat Cummins.
He could have been better off going over him. He had room to move on either
side of him. The shot oscillated between attacking and milking, not one or the
other. More than anything, it was a colossal letdown.
He was on 50 when Pakistan was 155 for 2 against India
in Ahmedabad six days ago. Despite not being in control, he was comfortable
after scoring 24 runs off Mohammad Rizwan’s previous 15 deliveries. He was then
dismissed while attempting the release shot, a dab to deep third, which he
plays extraordinarily late and well.
A recent and protracted downturn is undoubtedly
something that works against spin. Since the beginning of 2022, he has averaged
46.53 against it (and 39 in 2023) with a low strike rate of 70. Up until 2022,
he was striking at around 82 and averaged 74.53 against it. In the past two
years, he has fallen to spin 39 times; prior to that, throughout the course of
the six years or so since his debut, he had fallen to it 47 times. He had only
ever been stumped once in his ODI career before to this one. He has been
stumped four times in 2023, and it’s important to note that only once has he
charged straight at the spinner.
Instead, given that the big names are being (unfairly)
judged in this World Cup, there is this nagging half-sense of a circumstantial
explanation that might not even stand up to rigorous analytical investigation
and necessitates a preemptive clarification of what it is not. It’s not
#ZimBabar, though. Few batters can match his body of work, which spans forms,
quality assaults, challenging conditions, and dangerous situations. A hashtag
can’t harm that kind of effort.
By contrast, you could infer a wider ambiguity in
Babar’s game from the dismissals of Zampa and Mohammed Siraj in Ahmedabad, a
hedging against the more aggressive, risk-taking, domineering approach that his
game has the tools for and has demonstrated, with the low-risk,
high-functioning accumulator that he already is. When someone gets stumped
despite not totally committing to the charge, it kind of shows through. It
seems like Babar always chooses the conservative course of action by default,
especially whether he has just recovered from a few setbacks, is facing a
match-related crisis, or has a total to build on. Instead of purchasing it,
wait a moment and sign a tenancy arrangement with it.
If all of this sounds unfair, then yes, it totally is.
That is the price of being as good as Babar is, as great as he can be and of
greatness generally. It’s relentless.