Pak vs SA: Here are Babar Azam's 'lacklustre' stats in World Cup 2023

With Pakistan's captain Babar Azam facing increasing criticism over his monotonous performance, it's imperative to look into the 29-year-old's "shocking" stats in World Cup 2023 so far.

Babar, who is also the top-ranked one-day international (ODI) batter, has only averaged 34.50 with a modest strike rate of 79 scoring 207 runs in the six matches of the mega-event so far.

The Men in Green's skipper, having three half-centuries to his name, has the lowest strike rate among the batters with scores in excess of 50 runs.

His innings against South Africa today came at a strike rate of 76.92 and faced 66 balls to score 50 runs.

Babar scored with a strike-rate of 80.43 against Afghanistan while against India his strike-rate was 86.20.

On the other hand, emerging batter Abdullah Shafique is also on the list as he scored 58 runs off 75 balls with a strike rate of 77.3.

Earlier in the day, after winning the toss and opting to bat first, Pakistan were restricted to a 270-run total as they struggled to score big and were bowled out in the 47th over in the must-win game to remain in the World Cup 2023 semi-final race.

It must be noted that the Pakistan cricket team is on thin ice after losing three consecutive matches against India, Australia and Afghanistan. A loss in today's match can end their hopes of playing the semi-final of the mega event.

Earlier, Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and opted to bat in their World Cup match against in-form South Africa.