Matthew Hayden: “You can’t continue to keep on punching out hundreds and 50s and strike rates of 140-plus”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Iconic Australia opener Matthew Hayden has defended Pakistan captain Babar Azam, saying people can’t expect him to “keep on punching out hundreds and 50s”.
Azam has been Pakistan’s most consistent run-scorer in the past few years across all three formats and regularly rescues the men in green from precarious positions.
That being said, Hayden stated that the expectations on the 28-year-old need to be toned down as he is not a machine.
This is due to the fact that when Azam fails to perform in a few matches, the criticism comes pouring in.
“You can’t continue to keep on punching out hundreds and 50s and strike rates of 140-plus,” Hayden was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Azam is now captaining the Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
He kicked off his campaign with 68 runs in the two-run win over the Karachi Kings, which came off 46 balls and included seven boundaries and a six.
He followed that up with nine runs in the 56-run loss to the Multan Sultans.
Next up for the Zalmi will be a clash against the Quetta Gladiators on February 20.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 8:Â 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