Cricket

Legendary Indian cricketer Kris Srikkanth has launched a scathing attack on Pakistan captain Babar Azam, urging him to consider retiring from T20 cricket. Srikkanth's criticism stems from Azam's poor form and slow approach in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024."I don't think Babar should play T20 cricket," Srikkanth said on Star Sports. "You can't do this tuk-tuking all the time. They say Babar scored 4,000 runs like Virat or Rohit, but his strike rate is only 112-115. What are you talking about?"Srikkanth's comments come after Pakistan's disappointing exit from the T20 World Cup. The team suffered consecutive defeats in their opening games against the USA and India, failing to qualify for the Super 8 stage.Azam's captaincy has also come under scrutiny. Sources have indicated that Shan Masood will retain the Test captaincy for Pakistan's upcoming series against Bangladesh, while Jason Gillespie will take over as the red-ball head coach.Azam's brief tenure as T20I captain ended in April this year after a 4-1 series defeat to New Zealand. He was reinstated as the white-ball skipper before the T20 World Cup, but the team's poor performance has led to renewed calls for his removal.Srikkanth's criticism is not the first time Azam's approach has been questioned. Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has also expressed concerns about his slow batting style."Babar Azam is a very good player, but he needs to improve his strike rate," Afridi said. "He needs to be more aggressive and take more risks."It remains to be seen whether Azam will heed the advice of his critics and make changes to his game. However, it is clear that his captaincy and batting form are under intense scrutiny.

RCB's Premature Celebrations Cost Them Dear, Says SrikkanthLegendary Indian cricketer Kris Srikkanth has criticized Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for their excessive celebrations after their victory over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Srikkanth believes that RCB's complacency led to their downfall in the Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals (RR).RR defeated RCB by four wickets, ending their impressive comeback campaign. RCB had won six consecutive matches after a poor start, including a thrilling victory over CSK in their final league game. However, Srikkanth believes that RCB's celebrations after the CSK win were premature."In life when you are doing well, keep your mouth shut and keep going," Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel. "When you make noise out of something you are doing, you cannot do that work."Srikkanth criticized RCB for posting "unnecessary videos" and "showing off too much" after their win against CSK. He believes that this complacency allowed RR to exploit their weaknesses."That's why they came and destroyed them," Srikkanth said. "That's why in cricket you need to shut your mouth and play."Srikkanth also pointed out that RCB's six-match winning streak was not as impressive as the comebacks achieved by CSK and Mumbai Indians (MI) in the past."CSK and MI have done this so many more times," Srikkanth said. "CSK and Mumbai have both come from nowhere and won titles. These guys won six matches and as soon as they qualified, they got knocked out."RCB captain Faf Du Plessis admitted that his team was short with the bat against RR."With the dew coming, we felt we were short with the bat," Du Plessis said. "Did think we were 20 runs shy of what was a good score."Du Plessis praised his team's fighting spirit but acknowledged that they were not special enough with the bat in the Eliminator."Extremely proud," Du Plessis said. "Lot of teams - their wheels would've fallen off after 1 from 9. To come back like that, six games in a row, takes a lot of heart and character. We weren't special tonight in terms of pushing that extra 20 runs with the bat."