Shahid Afridi: “We have players coming up who can build a solid partnership at the top of the order alongside Babar”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Shahid Afridi, the former interim chief selector, said Pakistan captain Babar Azam should remain an opener in T20Is.
He made his choice despite the fact that the 28-year-old has been lambasted for scoring too slowly and wasting too many deliveries.
To fix this problem, Afridi suggested picking an aggressive batsman to open the batting with Azam in the shortest format.
This, however, would mean demoting Mohammad Rizwan down the order as he currently opens with the Pakistan skipper.
“Babar takes time to build his innings and he needs a partner who has a strike-rate of 140 plus since the powerplay is important and you have to make full use of it,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“So, strike-rate matters a lot in [the] T20 format, and after this PSL, we have players coming up who can build a solid partnership at the top of the order alongside Babar.”
Pakistan will now face Sri Lanka in a two-Test series, which will be played in Galle and Colombo from July 16 to 28.
Pakistan Squad for Sri Lanka Test Series:Â Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc & wk), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Muhammad Huraira, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood