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?
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.
