AB de Villiers: “Where’s Babar’s weakness, I haven’t seen any”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
AB de Villiers, the former South Africa cricketer, has admitted that he doesn’t know what Pakistan captain Babar Azam’s weakness is when it comes to his batting.
Azam has been a potent run-scorer in the last few years across all three formats.
Whenever Pakistan play any team, he is seen as the key wicket since the opposition players know that the 28-year-old is capable of taking the game away from them on his own.
With the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup coming up, De Villiers admitted that a lot of teams will be scrambling to find out any weaknesses Azam has.
“Where’s Babar’s weakness, I haven’t seen any,” the Proteas legend said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Azam recently featured in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Sri Lanka and accumulated 76 runs at an average of 25.33.
He subsequently proceeded to make 113 runs in their three-match ODI series against Afghanistan, which included two half-centuries, at an average of 37.66.
His latest assignment was the Asia Cup, where he finished with 207 runs in five matches, which included a top score of 151, at an average of 51.75.
Pakistan began the tournament with a 238-run win over Nepal before sharing one point apiece with India after their match was ruined by rain.
Despite this, they progressed to the Super Four stage and battered Bangladesh by seven wickets.
Their unbeaten streak came to an end when they faced India again as the men in blue demolished them by 228 runs.
Pakistan still had a chance to qualify for the Asia Cup final, but they couldn’t do it 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), 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