NEW DELHI: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has advised former Pakistan captain Babar Azam to adopt Virat Kohli‘s strategy in an attempt to restore his lost form.
Due to his poor form, Babar was rested for the final two Test matches against England. Pakistan won both games and won the first series under Shan Masood, 2-1. Babar has amassed 3,997 runs at an average of 43.92 in 55 Test matches.
He had not scored a Test half-century in 18 innings since late 2022, though, and his form had declined in the year he was appointed captain before resigning after Pakistan lost in the group stage of this year’s T20 World Cup in June.
“The biggest challenge is how they get Babar back into their side. They’ve got to find a way to get Babar back into form and back into their (Test) team,” Ponting said in the ICC Review.
Ponting continued by advising Babar to take a break from the game in order to refuel. This was an attempt by former India captain Kohli to regain his form following a run of poor batting performance.
During India’s home Test series against England earlier this year, Kohli left the game for personal reasons. Following his return, he played a game-winning innings against South Africa in the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup final, which gave India their first ICC trophy in eleven years.
When he returned from a similar sabbatical in 2022, Kohli produced incredible performances in all forms over the course of the following 12 months. Along with his game-winning performance against Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 and his incredible run in the ODI World Cup 2023 at home, when he scored a record 765 runs and won Player of the Tournament, he went on to achieve his first international century since 2019.
“You know, when you look at (Babar’s) numbers, it’s been a bit like the stuff that we were talking about with Virat Kohli earlier on. Sometimes – and I think Virat was on record saying this – that little bit of a break that he had, he took himself away from the game for a while to freshen up and sort out some things that he needed to sort out.
“This might be exactly what Babar needs. Maybe Babar needs to get away for a while and stop trying too hard. Lock the kit bag away for a while, and think about something else and then hopefully come back recharged, because we know at his best he’s as good as anyone going around. Hopefully, we get to see that in the back half of his career again,” Ponting said.
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