Misbah-ul-Haq: “Babar Azam is the number 1 player and I personally think that your best player should play the maximum number of overs in T20Is so that you can put pressure on the other team”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq firmly believes that Babar Azam is the country’s number one batsman in Twenty20 cricket.

Azam has been in superb form as of late as he scored 474 runs in eight matches at the World Cup, which included a century and three fifties, at an average of 67.71.

He has maintained his form in the ongoing limited overs series against Sri Lanka. In the three-match ODI series in Karachi, he accumulated 146 runs in two matches, which included a hundred, at an average of 73. It should be noted that the first game of the series was washed out due to heavy rain.

In the first Twenty20 International in Lahore on Saturday, which Pakistan lost by 64 runs, he made 13.

“Babar Azam is the number 1 player and I personally think that your best player should play the maximum number of overs in T20Is so that you can put pressure on the other team,” Misbah was quoted as saying by PakPassion. “We were looking at Ahmed Shehzad for opening or number 3 because we need players here. Then we thought that since Fakhar has scored, we can give him a break and try Ahmed and also Umar (Akmal). We will try to make changes wherever needed.”

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