The former captain of Australia, Ricky Ponting, spoke at length about Babar Azam’s lack of runs and indicated how emulating Kohli could get runs for him.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes Babar Azam could take a cue from Virat Kohli in the way ahead to rejuvenate his Test form. Having led Pakistan to their third successive home Test defeat against England in Multan last month, this resting came when Babar desperately struggled to move on, averaging only 20.7 in the format since 2023.
Considering the busy international calendar ahead, this was a big turning point regarding team changes from the Pakistan selection panel, which also sidelined key pacers Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah. Ponting referred to Virat Kohli’s poor form in the 2020/21 season and remembered how the Team India star took a break from the game before making a strong comeback much later.
The biggest challenge is getting Babar back into their side,” Ponting said in the ICC Review. They’ve got to find a way to get Babar back into form and back into their [Test] team.”
When you look at his numbers, it has somewhat been the stuff that we were talking about with Virat [Kohli] earlier on,” said Ponting. “Sometimes, and I think Virat was on record to say this, that little bit of a break that he had, he took himself away from the game for a while to freshen up and sort out some things that he needed to sort out.
