Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja came down hard on current skipper Babar Azam over his inconsistent performance with the bat in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023.
The No.1-ranked ODI batter returned to form in the last two ODIs, scoring half-centuries but he couldn't convert them into big scores and ended up on the losing side on both occasions against Afghanistan and South Africa.
Babar Azam in the line of fire
Babar the batter and captain, both have come under fire as Pakistan are facing an early exit from the tournament after four successive defeats since October 14.
And Ramiz Raja feels the skipper should be given an ultimatum regarding his failure to convert the fifties into match-winning scores for Pakistan.
Ramiz's brutal take on Babar, the batter
“The one who gets out after completing his fifty, give him the last warning for next match that if you repeat the same pattern, there is no space in team for you.
"Because he consumes the overs, spend the time on wicket, balance the innings but then destroy it completely as well,” Ramiz said.
Netizens troll 'Zimbabar'
Netizens had recently trolled Babar for his batting failures by editing his Wikipedia page to 'Zimbabar', which was a term coined by Pakistan cricket fans who feel that he only scores big against smaller teams like Zimbabwe.
Babar has scores of 5, 10, 50, 18, 74 and 50 in the tournament so far but all three of his half-centuries have come in losing causes.
Tough road ahead
Pakistan meanwhile, are languishing in sixth position on the points table and need to win their remaining three games to have an outside chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.
But they have tougher challenges ahead and will face Bangladesh, New Zealand and defending champions England in their last three games.
