Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif opened up after Babar Azam suffered yet another failure during the ongoing Test series against Australia.
Star batter Azam once again failed to impress and was cleaned up by Pat Cummins, who claimed three wickets, after scoring just one run during the ongoing second Test in Melbourne.
It must be noted that Azam has gone eight innings without a Test 50 in 2023. He will have one more chance, in the second innings, to score his first fifty of the year.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Latif said that Azam’s “confidence level [is] going down match by match”.
Australia were on top after reducing Pakistan to 194-6 at stumps on day two of the second Test in Melbourne on Wednesday.
The visitors still trail by 124 runs in the first innings with Mohammad Rizwan (29) and Aamer Jamal (2) out in the middle.
Pakistan were 124-1 at one stage but lost quick wickets towards the end of the final session and were pushed on the backfoot.
Abdullah Shafique (62) and Shan Masood (54) smashed fifties but couldn't kick on and score a big one.
Australia lost seven wickets for 131 runs on the second morning and were all out for 318 in their first innings against Pakistan.
Marnus Labuschagne scored his fourth Test fifty of the year but was dismissed by Aamer Jamal (3-64) soon after for 63.
But Pakistan will be unhappy with the number of extras, 52 in total, since it was the second-biggest contributor to Australia's total.
Pacers Shaheen Afridi, Mir Hamza and Hasan Ali claimed two wickets each.
- Babar Azam
