Ricky Ponting Looks Out For Babar Azam, Advises To Take A Break

Former legendary Australian captain, Ricky Ponting has urged former Pakistan captain, Babar Azam to follow in Virat Kohli’s footsteps if he wants to regain his form. 

Babar Azam recently resigned as the captain of Pakistan’s white-ball team to focus on his individual performance. 

Azam, who is one of the strongest and talented players in the Pakistan team has been struggling with his form since quite a few months. 

The no.3 batsman hasn’t been able to make a significant contribution to the team’s batting lineup in any format. 

Ricky Ponting, who has now taken on the coaching role has advised Babar Azam to take an extended break from international cricket to regain his form. 

Same approach was adopted by Virat Kohli, who is currently India's and world’s most successful batsman.

Babar’s rough patch reached a new height in the home test series against Bangladesh. He managed to score a meager 64 runs in four innings.

The former captain has precisely been struggling in the red-ball format of the game. He was dropped from the 2nd and 3rd test of the recently concluded Pakistan vs England series owing to his consistent bad performances. 

Babar has scored 3,997 runs in 55 Tests at a decent average of 43.92 but failed to make a half-century in the format since 2022 and has averaged a meager 20.7 since 2023.

Despite quitting captaincy, Babar is still an essential part of Pakistan squad and his underwhelming performances are bothersome for the team. 

Ricky Ponting, during an interview with the ICC Review, expressed concerns over Babar’s recent struggles, especially in Test cricket.

“The biggest challenge is how they get 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.”

Ponting gave the example of Kohli, stating that he had also taken a break due to the same reason in 2022 and his decision worked well in his favor. 

Ricky Ponting suggested that Babar Azam should take a similar route and stay away from the game for some time to freshen himself up.