Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has criticized Babar Azam for playing a poor knock in Pakistan’s 2025 Champions Trophy loss to New Zealand. He added that while the knock might have helped him to return to run-scoring ways, it didn’t help the team’s cause as well. While Babar scored 64 runs off 90 deliveries, Pakistan were bowled out for 260 to lose by 60 runs as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “Fakhar Zaman got injured. So he couldn’t come to open. Saud Shakeel was sent to open. He had to bat for 25 minutes but he couldn’t do that, and Mohammed Rizwan had to go up the order. After that, when Babar Azam was batting, Fakhar Zaman was there with him, you started with the required rate of around 6.50 runs per over and you took it close to 8.50 at the 20-over stage. After that, it went till 9.50 and 10. Sir, you were going way behind in the game. You were going at four runs per over. You might score runs for yourself but would end the team’s chances. There were 49 dot balls in Babar Azam’s fifty.”

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While saying that Babar Azam has been short of runs lately, Aakash Chopra added out that the target needs to be kept in mind during a chase as well.

“I understand that Babar Azam is going through a very bad phase and he hasn’t scored that many runs, but you need to look at the scoreboard in a run chase. Everyone else was hitting, Salman Agha and Khushdil Shah were trying, but Babar just couldn’t get going. He couldn’t show any aggression in batting and those runs weren’t useful in the end. It was one of the slowest fifties for Pakistan in Champions Trophy history and it came at a time when you were chasing 320. New Zealand beat you by 60 runs,” Aakash Chopra concluded.