Travis Head: “Very hard to keep him contained to dots, he rotates the strike extremely well, so you look up and he’s at a run a ball”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Travis Head, the Australia top order batsman, has admitted that it is very difficult to stop Pakistan captain Babar Azam from scoring runs.
He noted that the 28-year-old tries not to play too many dot balls and has a knack of rotating the strike “extremely well.”
On top of that, Azam cruises along when batting as oftentimes, his strike-rate is close to 100.
“Very hard to keep him contained to dots, he rotates the strike extremely well, so you look up and he’s at a run a ball,” Head said in a Fox Cricket YouTube video where the Australian team picked their current ODI World XI.
Azam has done well with the bat over the past few months as he made 76 runs in the two-Test series against Sri Lanka at an average of 25.33.
He then featured in the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan and finished with 113 runs, which included two half-centuries, at an average of 37.66.
His most recent assignment was the Asia Cup, where he scored 207 runs in five matches, which included a top score of 151, at an average of 51.75.
Azam will now lead Pakistan in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India, which starts on October 5.
Their opening match will be against the Netherlands on October 6 in Hyderabad.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Hasan Ali