Eng vs Pak 1st Test: Babar’s drives are not connecting, feels Ramiz

Karachi, Aug 6 (IANS) Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja feels star batsman Babar Azam needs to iron out a few technical flaws in his game.

Pakistan are currently playing their first of the three-Test series against England in Manchester. At the end of a rain-affected Day 1, Pakistan were 139/2.

Babar scored 69 runs on opening day and shared an unbeaten 96-run stand with Shan Masood (46 batting).

Ramiz observed that Babar was facing the ball with open shoulders which would not allow him to play the drives.

“When that is happening it means that your head position isn’t right. The head is not locked in with the shoulder. When you open yourself up in that manner, facing the outswinger becomes problematic. This means that your drives will stop connecting,” Ramiz said on his YouTube channel.

Ramiz, however, felt that the Babar struggled because he was hesitant and nervous.

The cricketer-turned-commentator also said that captain Azhar Ali was struggling because he was pondering too much on his captaincy.

“He (Ali) is over-analysing all aspects whether it is batting or captaincy. He should be more relaxed. It is important to switch on and off for a captain.

“You have to be turned on when the action is happening but you have to take a bit of time out when the action stops. He puts too much pressure on himself.”

Ali failed to open his account, leaving Pakistan on 43/2 before Shan and Babar steadied the ship.

–IANS

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