Explained: How Wiaan Mulder Exposed Babar Azam's Weakness To Dismiss Him

Anurag Dasgupta

How Babar's weakness was exposed [Source: AP Photo] How Babar's weakness was exposed [Source: AP Photo]

New match, but same old problem for Babar Azam as South African pacer, Wiaan Mulder exposed his weakness and dismissed him in the ongoing contest between Pakistan and South Africa. Babar looked in ominous touch, but one lapse of concentration led to his wicket in a crucial run-chase.

In a game where Pakistan needed 353 to stay alive in the tri-nation series, Babar started the innings with flurry of boundaries in the first over. He looked rock solid and was determined to score a big one on a flat Karachi surface. However, Mulder used his skills and exploited Babar's weakness to send him back to the pavilion.

How Mulder exploited Babar's weakness

In the 7th over when Pakistan were flying-high, Temba Bavuma gave the ball to Mulder and he didn't disappoint. The right-arm pacer bowled a length ball outside the off and it nipped back in to trap Babar Azam lbw. The batter did take a review, but the original call stood firm as he walked back to the pavilion.

Babar is someone who tends to stay on the back-foot, and while the position works on bouncy wickets, it back-fires when you are batting on surfaces in Pakistan, where there is not much bounce available. Most importantly, when the ball comes back into him, the batter hardly moves his feet, which has led to his demise many times. The same loophole was exploited by Wiaan Mulder as he brought one back into the batter and Babar failed to get a bat on it as he was hurried by the delivery.

Pakistan players with most bowled/lbw dismissals since 2023

Player
Matches
Dismissals
Babar Azam2122
Mohammad Rizwan2121
Abdullah Shafique1515
Shaheen Afridi1212
Agha Salman910

As the stats say, since 2023, amongst all the Pakistan players, Babar Azam has a woeful track record against incoming deliveries and has been either bowled or lbw 22 times, with his friend, Mohammad Rizwan at second position with 21 dismissals.

He is confident when the ball stays away from the body, but when it nips back in, Babar gets into a tangle and gets into two minds which leads to his wicket.