Are the Zimbabar trolls coming true for Babar? Here's what Danish Kaneria feels

Former Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria heavily criticized premier batsmen Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan following their performances in the Champions Trophy 2025He stated that Babar Azam lacks the intent of scoring runs against big oppositions and most of his runs come against smaller nationsThe Champions Trophy 2025 is a tournament to forget for Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan as they scored 87 and 49 runs respectively in two matchesWhile Babars sluggish knock of 64 in 90 balls against New Zealand while chasing 321 generated massive criticism Rizwan repeated the same conservative approach with a sluggish 46 in 77 balls against India which though helped Pakistan stitch a century stand it could only take them to a final score of 241 runs The result of such sluggishness is Pakistan knocked out of their home tournament within a matter of five daysSpeaking to ANI about the performances of the batters Danish Kaneria said Babar has not scored runs for so long But when he scores it is against Zimbabwe or against smaller teams If he scores against big teams So there is no intent at allThere is no depth in the batting Salman Agha and Khushdil Shah make some contributions sometimes Saud Shakeel is a technically correct batter But Rizwans 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 Danish Kaneria addedAlso ReadIndian womens hockey team stuns reigning Olympic champions Netherlands in shootoutBabar Azam is yet to score a century since August 2023 He then smashed 151 runs against Nepal in the Asia Cup 2023Since then he has featured in 24 ODIs and has scored 753 runs with an average of 3765From 202425 Rizwan has played 14 ODIs scoring 484 runs at a healthy average of 5378 with a century and two fifties in 12 innings but his strike rate of 7646 is way below his career strike rate which is almost 87 This conservative brand of cricket has no doubt hurt Pakistan cricketSpeaking on if Rizwan should persist as the whiteball 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 ShaheenWhen 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 addedBut Kaneria also alleged that the Pakistan Cricket Board PCB needs their captains to be yesmen and skippers like Rizwan are around as captains because of this He also said that it is very likely that focus will now shift on lefthanded batter Saud Shakeel to become the next captain but he said that a player who is performing well currently should not be burdened with captaincyDanish Kaneria said that if Rizwan decides to step down then the veteran Fakhar Zaman can enter the conversations of being a captainHe is fearless and will ask you a few questions He brings the XFactor Yesterday during the PakistanIndia match Pakistan did not have him as he is ruled out of Champions Trophy due to injury It has to be accepted he is an XFactor player He is not given much encouragement because it will cause Babar and Rizwans shops to be shut But he is really hardworking and courageous as a cricketer he addedDanish Kaneria also stated that the committee should give players one year time period to prove their worth Later they should honestly evaluate players performancesIf 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 is 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 Pakistan being out of CT he concludedWith ANI Inputs