Former Pakistan cricketer Mudassar Nazar said knee-jerk changes are not the solution after Pakistan crashed out of the Champions Trophy following successive defeats to New Zealand and India.
“Every loss doesn’t mean you upset the whole thing. Stick to what you should be doing, have stability and shut out the noise. Stick to it, and give them a reasonable run. After all, you can’t change all 11 players,” urged Nazar.
“You make one or two changes, fresh ones, who come without the baggage and want to make a name for themselves and they start to make a difference. You don’t change five, six or seven players.”
The 68-year-old, who is based in Dubai, even recently met the Pakistani team ahead of the match against India earlier this week.
With growing calls for removing the captain and coach, Nazar backed head-coach Aaqib Javed to continue, adding that the former pacer has the credentials. “Okay, there have been losses. But recently, we won three out of four Tests and he has done well with Lahore Qalandars winning the PSL twice. So he’s not a bad coach. He is probably the only coach in Pakistan who’s come through the system after coaching under-19, First-Class, and franchise teams. So the guy has got it. You just need to stick with it,” he added.
Nazar, a former head of Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy, lamented that most cricketers don’t regularly play first-class cricket.
“Babar Azam hasn’t played a First-Class game in the last three to four years and keeps going into international tours. Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah don’t want to play First-Class cricket. The entire squad, except the newcomers, hardly ever play. If your top players aren’t playing, how does the standard improve? You improve only by playing with and against better players. And that is missing in Pakistan.”
A veteran of 76 Tests for Pakistan, Nazar felt Babar needed some time away from the game. “Babar is not out of form, but he has a mental scar ever since he was removed from the captaincy. He needs to move away from cricket for three to four months, shape up, come back to first-class cricket, score three or four centuries. Then he has got about 7-8 years left in him.”
The former opener also pointed out that Pakistan had fallen behind in overall development compared to other teams.
“When you look at their ranking, it tells you a story. In most of the formats, they are at the bottom. And it hasn’t happened overnight. They have been sliding downwards for the last 4-5 years. Now and then there’s a flicker of hope when they manage to win something like the ODI series in Australia or South Africa. But when you see where the other countries have moved on in terms of infrastructure and development of the games, that’s where the truth lies; while Pakistan has descended from five years ago,” said Nazar.
Published – February 26, 2025 09:43 pm IST