Asia Cup 2023: Extremely ordinary captaincy – Gautam Gambhir criticizes Babar Azam’s tactics after loss against Sri Lanka

Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir questioned Babar Azam’s strategies after Pakistan suffered a two-wicket loss (DLS method) against Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Thursday. Gambhir reckons Babar should have kept the mid-off fielder inside the ring if his fast bowlers had the plan of bowling slower deliveries.

In fact, Sri Lanka needed six runs on the last two balls but Pakistan’s fast bowler Zaman Khan could not defend it against Charith Asalanka, who scored a boundary on the penultimate ball and then got a double on the final delivery to help his team chase down 252 in 42 overs.

Gautam Gambhir said on Star Sports, “For me, extremely ordinary captaincy as well. There was a four hit in Zaman Khan’s over over mid-off and there was another four hit in Shaheen Shah Afridi’s over over mid-off, and both those deliveries were slower ones.”

“If you want to bowl slower ones, keep the mid-off fielder at long-off and bring the third man up. This is extremely simple captaincy. Imagine if you had 13 runs left in the last over, it would have been difficult for Sri Lanka.”

Gambhir reckons Babar Azam let the game drift away when he was trying to bowl out his sixth bowler’s overs in the middle stage. The former left-hander feels Azam should have brought in Shaheen Shah Afridi when Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama, who added 100 runs, were going strong.

“You were allowing the game to drift at one stage. You wanted to complete your sixth bowler’s quota. It doesn’t work out like that. When the partnership was developing between Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama, you should have brought on your main bowlers and tried to pick up wickets.”

Gambhir added Pakistan could have won if they had looked for wickets in the middle overs and feels Babar Azam will have to pull up his socks as a leader.

“Pakistan could have won this game only by taking wickets. If Sri Lanka had batted till the end, they could have won earlier than they actually did. I feel Babar Azam will have to be slightly better in his captaincy as ODI cricket is not like T20 cricket.”

Following this loss, Pakistan was eliminated whereas Sri Lanka will take on India in the Asia Cup final on Sunday.