Former Pakistan batter and skipper Misbah-Ul-Haq has advised current skipper Babar Azam to play aggressively and not to play slowly. Babar Azam is compared with legend Virat Kohli because he too plays like him and numbers are compared according to their performances.
Babar Azam plays a bit slow scoring runs with a 130 strike rate and wastes a couple of balls. Recently Pakistan won the series against Ireland by 2-1. Babar Azam played an explosive knock of 75 runs in 42 balls while chasing. Babar will be well aware of the fact that Pakistan’s upcoming England T20I Series commencing from 22nd May will be a steep challenge as compared to Ireland
Misbah-ul-haq wants Babar Azam to strike more
Former skipper Misbah-ul-Haq advised Babar Azam to play aggressive cricket and generate some explosive shots which would help him to score runs, modern-day t20 cricket has changed now the approach of every batter has changed. In IPL we are witnessing massive totals that have registered and this approach will be followed by upcoming players. He said:
“We saw he (Babar) improved his strike rate against Ireland. Hopefully, he will bat like that when the team requires that sort of an innings from him. If an anchor role is required, then anchor it is. But you have to be potentially ready to play at 160-170 or even a strike rate of 200 if the team needs it. It will be an important thing for Babar to not bat at 130-140 strike rate if the team is chasing 200,”
Babar Azam has opened for his team in past years but since the last T20 World Cup, he has shifted himself to N03 and is comfortable enough scoring runs. Saim Ayub has replaced Babar Azam and has comfortably scored runs with Mohammed Rizwan. Babar needs to gear up and change his mindset for T20 cricket. Modern-day cricket has changed and so every batter will play with this approach only so Babar Azam should also follow this.