Pakistan’s bowling legend Waqar Younis has defended Babar Azam, saying that the batter carries too much pressure because he has no big-name support around him.
Speaking on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast, Waqar called Babar a superstar and said the lack of quality alongside him has made life harder.
“The sad part for Babar is that he is alone,” Waqar said. “If you added four more big names alongside Babar, then perhaps the conversation would be different, and the pressure on him would be less.”
Waqar said Pakistan relied on one batter far too often. “When a guy is alone and is the only batsman you rely on all the time, there is a lot of pressure,” he pointed out.
He compared the current side with Pakistan’s teams of the 1990s. “In Pakistan in the 90s, if you take the names of Pakistan’s top six, you would remember all six of them,” Waqar said. “Tell me today, apart from Babar, who do you remember from Pakistan?”
When the host suggested Sachin Tendulkar was also alone early in his career, Waqar disagreed. He pointed to Rahul Dravid and named Sanjay Manjrekar as another batter who played alongside Tendulkar. He said Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag all played by the time Tendulkar became a legend, and all of them helped him.
Waqar also said Babar’s strong start to his career raised the bar for him. “He performed so well in the beginning that it becomes an expectation,” he observed.
Babar became the world’s top-ranked ODI batter in 2021, won the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year award in 2022 and in 2023 became the fastest player to reach 5,000 ODI runs, getting there in 97 innings.
Waqar compared Babar’s situation with that of Virat Kohli, whose form drops draw heavy reaction from fans. “When you raise people’s expectations so much that they expect a 100, 50, or 80 from you in every match, then when you fail in four matches, you naturally have to face that kind of criticism,” Waqar stated.
Babar has not scored a Test century since December 2022, when he made 161 against New Zealand in Karachi. He managed 97 runs in four innings in this year’s Test series against England, with scores of 76, 8, 6 and 7. He then returned to domestic cricket to find form and scored 58 runs in four first-class innings.
His last international hundred came in an ODI against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi in November 2025. In the ongoing tri-nation ODI series, he made 45 and 29 against Sri Lanka and 34 and 10 against England, for a total of 118 runs without a six.
