Pakistan’s typically unpredictable destiny at the 2023 World Cup will be at the hands of their enigmatic leader Babar Azam, writes Ben Gardner. This article first appeared in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, a World Cup special.
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As a captain and as a person, Babar Azam is famously inscrutable, and that can make it hard to tell exactly how responsible he is for Pakistan’s fortunes. Equally, in the febrile world of Pakistan cricket, you fancy an element of distance is a wise thing to adopt, and as they have built an increasingly threatening side, Babar has been the only constant in a scene of ceaseless flux.
In the head coach role, Misbah-ul-Haq gave way to Saqlain Mushtaq who was moved aside for Grant Bradburn, with Mickey Arthur supporting from afar. Further afield, and Imran Khan’s removal as prime minister and subsequent arrest is relevant not just because of his status as one of Pakistan cricket’s most famous sons, but because any change of head of state brings with it, without fail, a change at the top of the PCB, which is on the verge of appointing a fourth chair since December last year.
Amidst all that, cheesy as it sounds, the Pakistan team have shrouded themselves in a veil of friendship. This does seem to be an unusually tight group, and though that’s a fact gleaned largely through the prism of social media, some things you can’t fake. The official PCB accounts pump out a stream of videos of celebratory cakes for every win and century, and dressing room hijinks when it rains, but it’s the personal accounts that reveal the closeness, with players delighting in each other’s achievements, and defending each other when the trolls pop up. Babar tends to keep his counsel, but this must be his creation, because who else?
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Whether consistency breeds success or vice versa, under Babar, Pakistan have had both. Since the 2019 World Cup, they have the best win/loss ratio of any team in the world, and they sit second in the ICC rankings. The XI is as settled as it has ever been. Above Babar are Imamul- Haq and Fakhar Zaman, a consistent yet contrasting opening pair. Below him, Mohammad Rizwan, now established at No.4, and Shadab Khan are the livewire, all-smiles deputies. The middle order is less nailed-down, but only because it is flush with options covering every base. Rounding out the side are Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf, who are among the best pacers at the World Cup, and a distance clear of the rest for watchability. Naseem Shah will be sorely missed, but they have enough collectively to make up for his absence. It all makes sense.
What could go wrong? For one, the simple fact that, in Pakistan cricket, nothing can ever go too right for too long. Revisit their proudest triumphs, and you’ll find seeds planted in despair. In 2017, they were hammered by India in the opening game and then hammered India in the Champions Trophy final. In 1992, they won one of their first five and all five of the rest, surging to glory as the Cornered Tigers.
This time, they are out in the open as one of the favourites, and that tag has at times not sat well. In 1999 they were the best team in the competition up until the final, when they ran into Shane Warne. The 2021 T20 World Cup saw them cruise through, and with nine balls left in the semi-final, Australia needed 18. Three Matthew Wade sixes later, the game was done. Last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia saw a sudden but marked downturn in Babar’s numbers, and his well-fancied side limped away.
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Any hint of a downturn this time will bring with it the ghosts of those past failures, and will be compounded by the context of a World Cup in India, and all the tensions, political and parochial, which that brings. It wasn’t long ago that Pakistan not travelling at all was being discussed as a genuine possibility. Under Babar, Pakistan have worked to detach themselves from any unhelpful stereotypes. The World Cup will provide the ultimate test.
And what, in all this, of Babar himself? A popular online debate is whether the Fab Four, consisting of Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Joe Root, should be expanded to include a fifth member. But much of that desire comes down to the tantalising contrasts between Babar and Kohli. Each is a run machine who has brought new levels of consistency and aesthetic pleasure to ODI cricket, and Babar has nosed ahead on that front.
Those caressed cover drives and dreamy flicks now see his ODI average hover around 60 – since the last World Cup, he averages 70. Each century or 1,000 run mark (19 and 5,380 at the time of writing), he is the fastest to. But it’s more than that. Each has come to symbolise their respective nations. But, while they are friendly off the field, they could also hardly be more different. Kohli is outspoken, Test cricket’s necessary defender, a bona fide celebrity with a superstar partner, a firecracker on the field whether captain or not. Babar is a enigma, largely unflappable, with only ever a hint of frustration creeping through.
There’s a decent chance this is how it all ends. Pakistan and India are surely two of the three favourites – a face-off in a World Cup final in front of a six-figure crowd at the Narendra Modi Stadium might just be how this is destined to finish. And if he can hold it all together, it might just be Babar lifting the trophy.
This article first appeared in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, a World Cup special.
