Dinesh Chandimal: “It is not easy to maintain consistency in performance, but the Pakistan captain has performed well in all three formats”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Sri Lanka batsman Dinesh Chandimal said Pakistan captain Babar Azam deserves the utmost amount of praise as he done the difficult task of remaining consistent for so many years.
Azam has regularly scored big runs in all three formats, which is something that many batsmen can’t do, Chandimal points out.
He added that the 28-year-old has also accomplished all this while having the added pressure of the captaincy on his shoulders.
“It is not easy to maintain consistency in performance, but the Pakistan captain has performed well in all three formats,” he told Cricket Pakistan.
Azam recently led the Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he finished as the second-highest run-scorer with 522 runs in 11 matches, which included a century and five fifties, at an average of 52.20 and a strike-rate of 145.40.
Pakistan recently played three T20Is against Afghanistan, but Azam was rested as the men in green lost the series 2-1.
Their next assignment will be a white-ball series against New Zealand, which will start on April 14 and comprise five T20Is and five ODIs.
Pakistan squad for T20I series against New Zealand: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Ihsanullah, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Zaman Khan
Pakistan squad for ODI series against New Zealand: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haris Sohail, Ihsanullah, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Usama Mir