Shoaib Akhtar: “[He] faced me quite bravely in the nets”
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Iconic Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar recalled how captain Babar Azam was quite brave when he faced him in the nets.
Akhtar bowled to Azam when the 27-year-old was part of an Under-15 camp back in the day.
The Rawalpindi Express had told Azam to defend the ball as he was going to pitch it up, but after two or three deliveries, Azam drove him, which didn’t sit well with Akhtar.
As a result, Akhtar bowled a bouncer to Azam.
“[He] faced me quite bravely in the nets,” Akhtar, who holds the record for the quickest delivery in international cricket at 161.3 kph (100.2 mph), was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam was on fire in the T20 World Cup as he broke the record for the most runs scored by a batsman in their maiden T20 World Cup appearance.
He accumulated 303 runs in six games, which included four fifties, at an average of 60.60 and a strike-rate of 126.25.
Pakistan will now play three T20 Internationals and two Tests against Bangladesh.
The T20 series will be held from November 19 to 22, while the Test series will begin on November 26.
Pakistan’s Squad for Bangladesh T20 Series: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shoaib Malik, Usman Qadir
Pakistan squad for Bangladesh Test series: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Abdullah Shafique, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Bilal Asif, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Afridi, Zahid Mahmood
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