Danish Kaneria attacks Babar Azam for underperforming against big teams, says 'when he scores, its against Zimbabwe'

Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria is the latest entrant in the list of legendary Pak players slamming their team after they faced a crushing defeat from India on Sunday. Kaneria blasted out at batters, Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam for their lack of intent against big opposition and piling up runs majorly against weaker teams. In a chat with ANI, Kaneria mentioned that Babar has not scored runs for so long but when he scored, it was against Zimbabwe or smaller teams.

Kaneria slams Babar Azam

''If he scored against big teams, there is no intent at all. There is no depth in the batting. Salman Agha and Khushdil Shah make some contributions sometimes. Saud Shakeel is a technically correct batter. But Rizwan's bat seems to have stopped working. When the Champions Trophy squad was announced, one could see it getting eliminated pretty soon out of the tournament,'' Kaneria said criticising Babar.

Kaneria questions Rizwan's captainship

Speaking about if Rizwan should persist as the white-ball captain, Kaneria said that he should persist since there are plenty of captains in the dressing room already with experience, such as Babar, Rizwan and Shaheen.

"When you change so many captains, make so many changes and do not show faith, the question arises, why does the board appoint one as a captain?." he added. But Kaneria also alleged that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) needs their captains to be 'yes-men' and skippers like Rizwan are around as captains because of this.

Kaneria also questioned the selector committee and said that the focus should be on giving players one year time and within that time frame, the body must evaluate their performances honestly. ''If they do not produce the results, they can be asked to pack their bags and leave. There should be such strict guidelines. But here, they make teams based on friendship and PR. When you make a team for your country, you do not think of yourself. But here, everyone sitting, running their shop. Score small runs and keep working. Things do not work this way. If you work like this, you will also get results like this,'' he further said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan will play their last game of the tournament against Bangladesh on Thursday, February 27.