Babar Azam failed to justify the ‘fab four’ tag: Aakash Chopra

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India’s former cricketer Aakash Chopra, earlier this year in a Youtube video, suggested a new list of fab four batsmen, keeping in mind the performances across all three formats of the game, while including Pakistan’s prolific batsman Babar Azam in it. However, Chopra now feels that Babar failed to live up to expectations in the recently concluded Test series between England and Pakistan, which the hosts won by 1-0.

The Lahore-born batsmen scored 195 runs in five innings at an average of 48.75, which included two half-centuries.

While rating the performance of each Pakistan player in the series, the former Indian cricketer gave Babar only 6 out of 10 for his below average performance.

“Babar Azam is a big name and hasn’t justified the tag of being part of the fab four. Started with a half-century and finished with a half-century. But was it good enough? It is fine for a lesser player but Babar will have to pay a huge prize for his own success and that’s how it should be, because you expect more from him,” said Chopra.

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Chopra was most impressed with wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan and gave him the highest rating.

“Rizwan did good and ended up being the player of the series for Pakistan. I will give him 8 out of 10 because he played well and especially when you have kept Sarfaraz Ahmed out of the side, so you deserve 8 out of 10,” he said.

The cricketer-turned-analyst added that Pakistan’s Test captain Azhar Ali arrived late to the party and could have been more proactive as a senior batsman.

“His overall average of the series is really good, but if you exclude his century from last Test, then it looks like he hasn’t done anything. I feel he arrived late because he could have helped Pakistan with runs in the second innings of the first Test. I am giving him 5 out of 10,” he said.

Finally, Chopra believes that Pakistan will rue the chance to register an away series win in England.

“It was a series Pakistan could have won. They lost the first Test from a winning position. All they needed was a win there as it rained in the other two matches. Having said that, if those two games had not been washed out due to rain, then Pakistan might have lost by a bigger lead,” he concluded.

Aakash Chopra’s ratings of other players:

Shan Masood: 6.5/10

Abid Ali: 5/10

Asad Shafiq: 2/10

Fawad Alam: 2/10

Shadab Khan: 4/10

Yasir Shah: 6/10

Mohammad Abbas: 5/10

Naseem Shah: 2/10

Shaheen Shah Afridi: 5/10