Babar is going through a lean patch: Former Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar

Pakistan were stunned by the African nation Zimbabwe in their second Super 12 stage fixture of the T20 World Cup 2022 at the Perth Stadium in Perth on Thursday, October 27 as they lost a thriller by just a run and are now in all sorts of trouble.

After facing an agonising defeat at the hands of arch-rivals India in the previous game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne which happened to be the tournament opener for both sides (India and Pakistan) Pakistan needed to win their match against Zimbabwe to not rely on other results in their group.

But now as they have lost to Zimbabwe they not only need to win their remaining three fixtures but will have to hope that the top two teams in their group i.e. India and South Africa also fumble at some stage. Pakistan will now face the Netherlands, then South Africa, and ultimately Bangladesh in their final Super 12 fixture.

The problem for the Babar Azam-led side is that they not only need to win all their remaining matches but they need to win them by big margins to keep a healthy net run rate. In today's game, their bowlers had set the stage for them by restricting Zimbabwe to just 130 for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs. But the batters let the team down and failed to take the side over the line.

Babar is going through a lean patch: Habibul Bashar

Babar, who is the arguably the backbone of the side top of the order failed with the bat and could only score four runs. Former Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar mentioned that Babar is having a tough time with the bat but needs to fire if Pakistan have to do well in the tournament.

"The class that Babar Azam has as a batter, he shouldn't have gotten out the way he got out. He is one of the finest batters in world cricket right now. But having said that, he is going through a lean patch, when he scores he scores really well and Pakistan needed him to score. Pakistan will hope he finds his form soon or else it will be difficult for them to stay in this tournament," said Bashar said while speaking on 'BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti' on CricTracker.