KARACHI: Peshawar Zalmi bowling coach Azhar Mahmood has strongly defended Babar Azam, asserting that the star batsman was not utilised properly during Pakistan’s disappointing campaign in the T20 World Cup, where expectations of a higher strike rate forced him out of his natural game.

Zalmi recorded a commanding 118-run victory over Quetta Gladiators at the National Bank Stadium on Sunday night, that featured Babar’s unbeaten 100 off just 52 balls — an innings laced with elegant stroke play, a hallmark of Babar’s batting.

The knock propelled Zalmi to a formidable total and underscored Babar’s return to form in the ongoing HBL Pakistan Super League, where he has already crossed 400 runs at a strike rate exceeding 143.

“Babar has always been world-class,” Azhar, who recently ended his stint at the Pakistan Test coach, said. “He was going through a slightly difficult phase.

“When he was with me during the Test matches, we spoke to him and worked with him. We told him that the cricket he knows how to play — he is a proper cricketing shots player. He is not someone who goes and plays power-hitting straight away.”

Azhar highlighted how Babar has rediscovered his “artistic kind of batting” in the PSL, with fluid shots flowing through for him.

“The way he played today, he presented his innings so beautifully,” the former Pakistan all-rounder noted. “And if you look at him throughout the PSL, you will see his proper cricketing shots again,”

The coach revealed that his message to Babar was simple: “Go and enjoy yourself, and play your own cricket the way you have always played it.”

Azhar then turned his attention to Babar’s struggles in the T20 World Cup, where the batsman was criticised for a relatively modest strike rate. He argued that the demand for Babar to bat at number four and accelerate unnaturally created unnecessary pressure.

“When you made him bat at number four in the World Cup, people talk about his strike rate,” he said.

“If you look at strike rates in Pakistan’s T20 cricket, we don’t have anyone with 180-190. Babar’s strike rate in international cricket is 128.

“So there isn’t that much difference. But what you get with Babar is consistency. He sets a platform for you… After that, your power-hitters can play freely.”

Azhar contended that excessive hype around Babar’s strike rate and suboptimal utilisation contributed to his difficulties.

“So I think there was a lot of hype on Babar that his strike rate is low, and the way we have used him… I think he wasn’t utilised properly,” he remarked pointedly.

The Zalmi coach broadened his critique to Pakistan’s cricket ecosystem, lamenting an overemphasis on immediate results rather than long-term process.

“International matches obviously have pressure… unfortunately in Pakistan, it has always been that there is too much focus on the outcome — if you get knocked out of the tournament,” he said. “I always believe that you have to work on the process.

“We focus too much on results. If you follow the process for a long time… give them proper opportunities and hold them accountable.”

Azhar also pointed to frequent changes in the coaching staff as a destabilising factor. In the last two years, he noted, six to eight coaches had come and gone, leaving players uncertain.

“Every coach has his own mindset… now the players know that today this coach is there; tomorrow who knows if he will be or not,” he observed.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2026