{"id":307788,"date":"2023-01-16T10:09:54","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T05:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/?p=307788"},"modified":"2023-01-16T10:09:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T05:09:54","slug":"ex-indian-skipper-backs-babar-azam-for-captaincy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/ex-indian-skipper-backs-babar-azam-for-captaincy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Indian skipper backs Babar Azam for captaincy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> ISLAMABAD<br \/>\nIndian cricket great Mohammad Azharuddin on Sunday expressed support for Babar Azam, saying that the under-fire Pakistan captain has had a short sting at the helm of affairs and deserves some more time.<br \/>\nAzam\u2019s position as the skipper has been under threat after the home side\u2019s loss to New Zealand, with speculation rife that he could be replaced \u2014 possibly by Shan Masood.<br \/>\nSpeaking exclusively to Dawn.com on the sidelines of the International T20 league in the United Arab Emirates, Azharuddin reminded that Azam has been in charge of the national team for a mere year and a half.<br \/>\nHe also offered the elegant batter some advice. \u201cBabar Azam\u2019s natural game is not slogging. If (some day) he can\u2019t score runs as an opener, he can also play further down the batting lineup.\u201d<br \/>\nCommenting on fast bowlers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah, the cricketer-turned-commentator said, \u201cPakistani fast bowlers are good but should pay more attention to their fitness\u201d.<br \/>\nEarlier this week, former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja extended support to national captain Azam, saying that he was doing a \u201cgood job\u201d.<br \/>\n\u201cUnder the captaincy of Babar, Pakistan\u2019s performance in white-ball formats remained good whereas in Test cricket more good work needs to be done for improvement,\u201d Raja had added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD Indian cricket great Mohammad Azharuddin on Sunday expressed support for Babar Azam, saying that the under-fire Pakistan captain has had a short sting at the helm of affairs and deserves some more time. Azam\u2019s position as the skipper has been under threat after the home side\u2019s loss to New Zealand, with speculation rife that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-307788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ex-Indian skipper backs Babar Azam for captaincy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/ex-indian-skipper-backs-babar-azam-for-captaincy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Indian skipper backs Babar Azam for captaincy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISLAMABAD Indian cricket great Mohammad Azharuddin on Sunday expressed support for Babar Azam, saying that the under-fire Pakistan captain has had a short sting at the helm of affairs and deserves some more time. 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