In the Champions Trophy 2025, the Pakistan cricket team has been very poor. In the first match, he had to chase 321 runs but the entire team collapsed for 260 runs. Babar Azam proved to be the biggest villain of this plight of the Pakistani team. He put the entire team under pressure with his slow innings, as a result of which the middle and lower order batsmen were dismissed for scoring fast runs. He completed his fifty in 81 balls. This is the slowest half -century of his career. In this match, Babur was able to score 64 runs in 90 balls with a strike of just 70. But despite this, former New Zealand cricketer and commentator Iyan Smith has come to his rescue.

He has blamed Fakhar Jaman for Babur's slow innings.

Smith's shocking statement

Babar Azam was severely criticized after Pakistan lost 60 runs in Karachi. Especially from fans to cricket experts, everyone was angry with his strike rate. India's legendary spinner R Ashwin compared his innings to the turtle. But New Zealand veteran cricketer and commentator Ian Smith has a different opinion from him. He said, 'Babur played very well but due to the injured Fakhar Zaman, he missed out on taking 15 to 20 Quick Single and Double.

Due to this, his strike rate decreased. Smith's statement has shocked everyone.

Let me tell you that Fakhar Jaman was trying to play more fast than Babur despite being injured. However, due to injury, he could not succeed in it and scored 24 runs in 41 balls. But other batsmen played faster than Babur. Pakistan vice-captain Salman Ali Aga hit 42 runs in just 28 balls in front of Babur. Finally Khushdil Shah scored 69 runs in 49 balls. Even bowler Haris Rauf scored 19 runs in 10 balls. But Babur could not do this.

Babur played 49 dots to complete the fifty

Pakistan needed a fast start against New Zealand.

But Babur failed to do so with Saud Shakeel. Unlike the need of the team, he played a sluggish innings like turtle. While he had been able to score just 22 runs in the first 10 overs.

Babur could not take advantage of the powerplay. After this, when some wickets fell, Babur stopped taking the risk of playing big shots. Between the 16th over to the 32nd over, Babur faced a total of 45 balls and could not hit a single boundary. At the same time, he completed his half -century in 81 balls, out of which 49 balls were dots.