Renowned commentator and ex-Pakistan cricketer Ramiz Raja has highlighted Green Shirts’ skipper Babar Azam’s major batting shortcoming leading to his lacklustre performance in the ongoing World Cup 2023 so far.

The veteran cricketer believes that Azam struggles when playing spin in the initial phases of the innings, an issue which he says can be addressed by choosing to play sweep shot.

“If you want to find fault in his batting, it’s his batting against spin upfront when he starts the innings. He is not as fluent as he is when he is facing pace.

“I don’t know whether it’s his footwork, whether it’s in his mind, or whether he doesn’t have too many options because he doesn’t play the sweep shot. On slow pitches, you need to play the sweep shot,” Raja said on a private news channel.

“Every time he has been aggressive, he’s gotten out as well. Against Afghanistan, he hit a massive six and then got out just at the wrong time. So, the confidence builds and it goes flat. All he needs to do is work his way through to a hundred where he faces pace, and spin, and feels comfortable about his role. He is not entirely out of touch, he is still middling the ball, but it’s that when he begins his innings against spin, he looks just a little bit jittery,” he concluded.

Spinners have dismissed Azam in five out of seven games during the tournament with the 29-year-old scoring a total of 216 runs, including three fifties, at an average of 30.85.

After losing four consecutive matches, Pakistan made an excellent comeback and thumped Bangladesh by seven wickets in the 31st match of the ongoing World Cup 2023 at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India, on Tuesday.

Bangladesh became the first team to get knocked out of the tournament in the ongoing mega-event.

Pakistan will now play New Zealand in another must-win match on November 4 in Bengaluru. The Green Shirts would have to win the match at all costs if they want to keep their hopes of playing the event’s semi-final alive.