Legendary Australian batter Ricky Ponting has urged star Pakistan batter Babar Azam to follow Indian batter Virat Kohli’s approach to regain his form.
The former Pakistan captain’s performance has seen a significant dip in recent years, particularly in Test cricket, in which he has averaged just 20.7 since 2023.
The star Pakistan batter managed to score a total of 64 runs in four innings during the home Test series against Bangladesh earlier this year.
His form woos continued in the first Test against England in Multan and was later released from the squad for the remainder of the Test series.
The former Pakistan captain had a good start to his inning in the first PAK v AUS ODI, however, he failed to make it big and fell prey to Adam Zampa after scoring 37 runs.
Now, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has advised him to take a rest from cricket to freshen up, an approach star Indian batter Virat Kohli had taken in 2022 to recover his batting form.
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“The biggest challenge is how they get Babar back into their side,” Ponting said in the ICC Review. “They’ve got to find a way to get Babar back into form and back into their [Test] team.”
According to Ponting, Kohli made a remarkable return to cricket after making the bold decision to take an extended break in 2022.
The break helped the former India captain play crucial innings throughout the T20 World Cup 2022 followed by his ODI comeback in World Cup 2023.
“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,” said Rick Ponting. “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.”
The former Australian captain urged Babar Azam to take a similar approach and stay away from the game for some time.
“This might be exactly what Babar needs. Maybe Babar needs to get away for a while and stop trying too hard,” Ponting said.
“Lock the kit bag away for a while, 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,” he added.
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