Added pressure affecting Babar: Butt

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has addressed the growing pressure on Babar Azam, offering insights into why the star batter is facing heightened scrutiny from fans and former cricketers.

In an interview with a local sports channel, Butt highlighted two key reasons for the criticism aimed at Babar.

He believes that Babar's performance is under intense pressure due to the team's over-reliance on him.

"There are two reasons (why Babar is facing so much heat). No doubt, he is currently Pakistan's best batter and, I think, the most consistent player of the decade. But the problem is that when a player struggled earlier, they were more out of form than Babar," Butt said.

"But with him, there were 4-5 other players who used to win matches, so everyone's respect used to be saved and it was covered. Now the problem is that Babar has scored so much, then he is the only one who scores most of the runs for Pakistan. There is no one with him who can match him," he added.

The former opening batter pointed out that Pakistan's heavy reliance on Babar Azam has exposed a critical weakness: the lack of player development.

According to him, the focus on power-hitting and aggressive play has resulted in a shortage of technically sound players capable of anchoring the innings when Babar falters.

"Now, when he is not scoring, it feels like Bakar is not doing anything. Babar has made people habituated by scoring so many runs that people now want him to score lots of runs in every inning. Now there is no other match-winning player with him in the Pakistan team," he said.

"You can see, the day he doesn't run, you know that the Pakistan team will not win the match. So, this is the problem of Pakistan that you did not develop the players. You tried to develop everyone on the basis of power-hitting, the basis of playing openly. And now you don't have players with the right techniques," he concluded.

It is worth noting that Babar has struggled recently, scoring only 22 runs in the first Test and just 31 runs in the first innings of the ongoing second Test against Bangladesh.