Dimuth Karunaratne: “Everyone knows he [Babar] is a great batsman”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Dimuth Karunaratne, the Sri Lanka Test captain, said everyone knows that Pakistan skipper Babar Azam “is a great batsman.”
Azam has garnered this reputation through his consistent performances and regular match-winning knocks for Pakistan in all three formats.
Many consider the 28-year-old to be in the Fab Four, which is a term used to rank the top four batsmen in the world.
“Everyone knows he [Babar] is a great batsman,” Karunaratne was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam recently scored 76 runs in a two-Test series against Sri Lanka at an average of 25.33.
He subsequently went on to amass 113 runs in three ODIs against Afghanistan, which included two half-centuries, at an average of 37.66.
Most recently, he was involved in the Asia Cup, where he struck 207 runs in five matches, which included a top score of 151, at an average of 51.75.
Pakistan kickstarted their campaign with a dominant 238-run win over Nepal before sharing one point apiece with India after their match was rained off.
Even though this happened, they booked their spot in the Super Four stage and crushed Bangladesh by seven wickets.
Their unbeaten streak came to an end when India demolished them by 228 runs.
Pakistan still had the chance to make it to the Asia Cup final, but fell short as they lost to Sri Lanka by two wickets via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 Asia Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Haris (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Shahnawaz Dahani, Zaman Khan.
Travelling reserve: Tayyab Tahir