Pakistan's batting coach admits '70 per cent'. Then says Babar is fine.

Let's start with what happened on Tuesday in Lahore. Pakistan — the hosts, the tournament favourites, the team that had won their first three matches — walked out to bat against Sri Lanka and got demolished. Dilshan Madushanka ripped through them with career-best figures of 5 for 34. Pakistan were bowled out for 110 in 25.3 overs.

That is their second-lowest ODI total on home soil. The only time they have been worse at home was 75 all out — against the same opposition, in 2009. Sri Lanka chased it down in 18.1 overs for the loss of two wickets. Kamindu Mendis strolled to an unbeaten 62 like he was batting in a warm-up game.

Babar Azam top-scored with 29 off 33 balls. He hit five boundaries, looked like he was building something, and then got trapped LBW by Eshan Malinga. It was the story of his entire tri-series compressed into one innings: a start, a few pretty shots, and then nothing.

After the Sri Lanka debacle, Pakistan batting coach Mike Smith fronted the media. And he said something remarkable. He admitted that Pakistan's top-order batting group was operating at about 70 per cent of where it needed to be.

Seventy per cent. At home. In a tournament you have already qualified for the final of. Against bowling attacks you see regularly on the subcontinent circuit. This is not a team adjusting to alien conditions in England or Australia. This is Pakistan in Lahore, and their own batting coach is saying the top order is running at three-quarters capacity.

Smith blamed a combination of loose shots and quality bowling. He refused to blame the Lahore pitch. He said the side never built momentum. All of which is fair. But none of it explains why the batting coach of a team that got bowled out for 110 then pivoted to his next claim.

The logic here is circular and Smith must know it. If Babar had converted a start, nobody would be talking about Babar. Correct. But he has not converted a start in four attempts. The entire point of the debate is the conversion failure. Saying 'if the problem didn't exist, nobody would notice the problem' is not a defence. It is a description of the problem.

Babar has hit 17 fours in this tri-series. He has hit zero sixes. In four innings on Pakistani soil in 50-over cricket, the man widely considered the best ODI batter in the world has not cleared the rope once. He has been getting in — 45, 34, 29 — and then getting out without ever accelerating. The gears that used to shift seamlessly from accumulation to domination appear to be stuck.

Not everyone in the Pakistani cricket ecosystem is as relaxed as Smith. Shoaib Akhtar, never one to sugarcoat, went on television and said the team management is actively weighing Babar Azam's future in the ODI side. He was careful — he said he did not want to create controversy — but the claim itself was the controversy.

Akhtar argued that Babar still deserves a chance to prove himself, but the framing was unmistakable: this is no longer being treated as a temporary dip. The management is watching.

Former Pakistan bowler Tanveer Ahmed went further and got specific. He identified three technical weaknesses that opponents are now routinely exploiting: spin, incoming fast deliveries, and short balls. His assessment was blunt.

The uncomfortable truth is that Ahmed is not describing a form slump. He is describing a technical vulnerability that teams have mapped out. The spin issue has been whispered about for two years. The incoming delivery problem has been visible since the 2023 World Cup. And if bowlers are now adding short-pitched attacks to the playbook against a batter who used to dispatch bouncers routinely, the net is tightening.

Babar's genius has always been his cover drive, his timing through point, and his ability to manipulate pace bowling on the off side. But modern international bowling has stopped feeding those strengths. They are bowling at his pads, into his body, and into the rough outside off stump. And he has not found a consistent answer.

Captain Shaheen Shah Afridi took a different line. He described Babar as the backbone of the national team and said there was nothing wrong with his commitment or preparation. It is the captain's job to back his players publicly, and Shaheen did exactly that.

But the optics are difficult. Pakistan just got bowled out for their second-lowest home total. Their batting coach says the group is operating at 70 per cent. Their best batter has not passed 50 in four innings. And the final is on Saturday against the same Sri Lanka attack that just dismantled them.

Pakistan's ODI World Cup in South Africa is eight months away. The tri-series was supposed to be a confidence-builder — a home tournament against two beatable sides where the top order could find rhythm and the bowling attack could fine-tune its death overs. Three wins out of four suggests it worked. But 110 all out tells a different story.

Mike Smith can say there is no concern. Shaheen can call Babar the backbone. But when your own coaching staff publicly admits the batting unit is operating at 70 per cent, and your best batter has zero sixes in four home ODIs, the question is not whether there is a concern. The question is how deep it runs.

The final on Saturday will be the first real test. Sri Lanka's Madushanka will have the confidence of a five-wicket haul in his last game at this ground. Pakistan's top order will have the memory of 110 all out in theirs. Smith says a big score is imminent. The tri-series will tell us whether that is coaching optimism or self-delusion.