Aakash Chopra: “Going by the stats, Babar Azam should be the No.5, but I am not including him in my list. He has scored 735 runs in 26 matches, his average is only 32, and his strike rate is merely 123. Sorry! But I can’t take him in my team”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former India batsman Aakash Chopra said he can’t include Pakistan captain Babar Azam in his list of the top five T20 batters in 2022.
Chopra acknowledged that judging by statistics, the 28-year-old should make the cut.
However, he refused to select the Pakistan star, saying his average was just 32 and his strike-rate was too low – hovering at around 123.
“Going by the stats, Babar Azam should be the No.5, but I am not including him in my list. He has scored 735 runs in 26 matches, his average is only 32, and his strike rate is merely 123. Sorry! But I can’t take him in my team,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Instead of picking Azam, Chopra included Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan, while also picking New Zealand’s Devon Conway, Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza, and the India duo of Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav.
Azam is currently captaining the Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he has scored 416 runs in nine matches, which includes a century and four fifties, at an average of 52 and a strike-rate of 146.47.
The Zalmi will be in action again on Sunday when they take on Islamabad United.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 8: Babar Azam, Sherfane Rutherford, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Haris, Aamir Jamal, Salman Irshad, Tom-Kohler Cadmore, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Rovman Powell, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Danish Aziz, Arshad Iqbal, Saim Ayub, Usman Qadir, Suifyan Muqeem, Haseebullah, Jimmy Neesham, Khurram Shahzad, Haris Sohail, Richard Gleeson (partial replacement for Rovman Powell), Peter Hatzoglou (partial replacement for Mujeeb ur Rahman), Shakib Al Hasan (available for playoffs), Azmatullah Omarzai
& who the FRU?
Hahaha… believe me no one will take your opnion, sp please keep it with you