T20 World Cup: Babar, Rizwan not willing to get out of comfort zone, says Mohammad Amir

Former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir has criticised openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, saying the players are limited and aren't willing to get out of their comfort zone.

Babar and Rizwan have come under the radar in the ongoing T20 World Cup after producing disappointing performances. While the skipper has scored a 0 and 4, Rizwan has scored 4 and 14 in their first two games as Pakistan are winless in the tournament.

Speaking in a recent interview, Amir suggested that Pakistan's issues began when Misbah-ul-Haq, who was the Pakistan coach at that time, made Rizwan open and decided to sacrifice Fakhar Zaman.

"All of this started when Misbah (Misbah-ul-Haq) became the head coach and he made (Mohammad) Rizwan open and sacrificed a Fakhar (Zaman), who was Pakistan's opener in T20 cricket at that time," Amir said in an interview with 24 News HD.

"Good players can perform anywhere. In order to save your place in the team, you said you can't bat at number 5, and because of that Fakhar was sacrificed. Both openers (Rizwan and Babar Azam) are limited, and are not ready to get out of their comfort zone," the fast bowler added.

Meanwhile, Amir isn't the only one who has criticised Babar recently. Pakistan legends Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram were highly critical of the opener and in fact, Akran even went on to say that Babar is someone who will never sacrifice for his team.

"All of these things begin at the top. And at the top is your captain. If your captain plays for himself and is insecure. If your captain scores runs and lets other batters play at his position, you get to know that your captain is ready to sacrifice himself for you, this Babar has to learn," added Akram.

Pakistan kickstarted T20 World Cup 2022 with a four-wicket defeat to arch-rivals India. In their second game of the Super 12s, Pakistan lost to Zimbabwe by a run, which led to furious reactions from several veterans from the country.

Reacting to the one-run loss, Akram said that Babar needs to "be more intelligent" on the field as a skipper. Akram also stated that if it was up to him, he would have picked Shoaib Malik in the middle-order considering the team's woes in the said department.

"For the last one year, we knew that the middle-order is weak. This guy is sitting here, Shoaib Malik, and my end goal as a captain is to win the World Cup. If I have to make a donkey my father to achieve that, I'll do it, as winning the World Cup is my ultimate goal. If I wanted Shoaib Malik in the middle, I'll make sure to tell the chairman of selectors that I want this guy or else I'll not be captaining the team. But, we don't have people like that," said the legendary pacer on A Sports.

"Babar has to be more intelligent. These are not mohalla teams. The players are decent but I would've put Malik in the middle-order right from the start. This is Australia, not Sharjah or Pakistan's dead wickets," Akram asserted.

Pakistan are currently playing against Netherlands in T20 World Cup 2022 at Perth Stadium.