Aaqib Javed: “When we play against Karachi and we have a total of 180 or so, we have never tried too hard or wanted too badly to get Babar Azam out because he plays at his own pace and the required rate keeps increasing”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Lahore Qalandars head coach Aaqib Javed said his team never actively look to get Babar Azam out in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Explaining the reasoning behind this, he said the Pakistan captain scores runs at a low strike-rate in T20 matches.
Due to this, if Azam stays out at the crease for longer, the required run rate for his team will become higher.
The 28-year-old will play for the Peshawar Zalmi in PSL 8 after being traded to them from the Karachi Kings in exchange for Pakistan batsman Haider Ali and all-rounder Shoaib Malik.
“When we play against Karachi and we have a total of 180 or so, we have never tried too hard or wanted too badly to get Babar Azam out because he plays at his own pace and the required rate keeps increasing,” Aaqib told Sports Paktv as quoted by NDTV.
Aaqib will be hoping to guide the Qalandars to back-to-back wins in the PSL after they triumphed in PSL 7.
The Qalandars will kick off PSL 8 on February 13 when they face the Multan Sultans.
As for the Zalmi, their first game will be against the Kings on February 14.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 8: Babar Azam, Rovman Powell, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (Sri Lanka), Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Sherfane Rutherford, Wahab Riaz, Arshad Iqbal, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Saim Ayub, Salman Irshad, Usman Qadir, Haseebullah Khan, Sufyan Muqeem, James Neesham, Khurram Shahzad, Haris Sohail and Richard Gleeson
Lahore Qalandars Squad for PSL 8: Fakhar Zaman, Rashid Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, David Wiese, Hussain Talat, Haris Rauf, Abdullah Shafique, Liam Dawson, Sikander Raza, Ahmad Daniyal, Dilbar Hussain, Harry Brook, Kamran Ghulam, Mirza Tahir Baig, Shawaiz Irfan, Zaman Khan, Jalat Khan and Jordan Cox, Ahsan Bhatti, Sam Billings, Shane Dadswell and Kusal Mendis