Babar should not have been made captain in T20 cricket: Intikhab  

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Former Pakistan cricketer Intikhab Alam believes that it was the wrong decision to appoint Babar Azam as the captain in all formats. 

While speaking to Cricket Pakistan in an exclusive interview, Alam said that Azam should not have been the captain in T20 cricket.  

“When Babar was appointed captain in all formats, I had stated that this was not the right thing to do. I think there is too much pressure on him due to captaincy in all formats, even if he himself says that this is not the case. If we wanted to give him captaincy, it should have only been in Test cricket and ODIs. There should have been another captain in T20 cricket,” said Intikhab. 

He also opened up about Pakistan’s three-nil ODI series whitewash against England.  

“The reason behind such a performance [whitewash in ODI series against England] is because there is not a strong domestic structure in place. If you look at our past history, good teams were formed only when we had a proper system in place. Teams are not made through PSL or league cricket,” he said.  

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Alam also spoke about the dip in performance of Pakistan spinners in the recent past.  

“If you closely watch our spinners, they bowl with a front-on bowling action. There is no variations or change in speed in their bowling which makes it easier for the batsmen to play them. I think the coaches need to look at this inorder to make our spinners more effective,” he said.  

He was also no satisfied with the performance of head coach Misbahul Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis.  

“If you gauge the performance of the coaching staff, there isn’t much improvement in the past couple of years and the defeat against England in ODI series is also going to affect the morale of the team,” he said. “The T20 World Cup is just around the corner, so hopefully the team will do well in the upcoming T20 matches and go into the mega event with a positive frame of mind. The conditions in UAE are similar to Pakistan, which will benefit the Pakistan team as well.”