PAK vs AUS: Rashid Latif in support of Babar Azam

Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has spoken out in support of Babar Azam before the historic series against Australia, claiming that he is not responsible for the Karachi Kings’ poor performance in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

According to a former director of the Karachi Kings, the franchise needs to improve its drafting ability and be more professional in its approach.

He respects Quetta Gladiators’ sentiments and advises them to recruit professionals to run the franchise.

“First thing is they need to take draft seriously. In my view, Karachi and Quetta, both were not professional on the day of Draft as preparation for this starts one month prior,” Rashid Latif said.

Latif emphasised a comprehensive analysis of the data while acquiring players, and he expects Karachi to do better in the draft next year.

“My strategy would have revolved around this. How many hitters for the powerplay, batters in middle-overs, wrist spinners, two bowlers who can bowl 140+.”

“Karachi had only Sharjeel in the top three otherwise there was no power-hitter. There were a lot of mistakes and they will learn out of this. Hopefully, they don’t do these mistakes again as Multan Sultans and Quetta Gladiators have done it in the past and have suffered.”

Rashid emphasised the distinction between leading a national team and leading a franchise. He refrained from criticising Babar’s captaincy, claiming that his team was not strong.

“Captaining Pakistan team is a different thing as captain has the power of making a team. But in PSL, it is different. You have a coach, other heavyweights, owners. A captain can not argue much with them and have to play at any cause.”

“I won’t say anything on Babar’s captaincy as it was quite a weak team and it was evident on the day of the draft. Whether a captain is big in stature if there are injuries and other things. He cannot succeed.”

Because he was selected captain of the ICC T20I and ODI teams of the year, Rashid remarked that people should not judge his captaincy only on the PSL.

“A trend gets started and especially social media starts raising questions, comparing with other franchise captains. Yes, there will be the pressure of losing so many games but my support is with Babar. PCB doesn’t need to panic if the results are not good against Australia too and the things must carry smoothly.”

Rashid went on to discuss Quetta, saying that they must be open-minded in their attitude.

“Quetta did tactical mistakes by not having enough bench strength while picking old players. They will have to hire people who can make tactical decisions. Moin Khan doesn’t have enough time, we all know he is busy running his academy and here you need people who can work a complete year.”

“They are not stepping out of their limit and cricket is now changed. In the initial seasons, the data was not involved that much and if Quetta, Karachi, and a few other teams can’t come close to data, they will continue to stay behind.”

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