AB de Villiers: “Babar needs to score runs in this World Cup for Pakistan. That’s the go-to guy. If he’s scoring runs, all of Pakistan look in form, every single player. So, I’ll be looking to Babar Azam”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
AB de Villiers, the legendary South Africa batsman, admitted that Pakistan captain Babar Azam has to be at his very best in the ongoing 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup and score runs throughout the tournament.
Since he is the leader of Pakistan’s batting line-up, the spotlight will be on him to perform.
The 28-year-old has already established his reputation as one of the top batsmen in the world today, and De Villiers acknowledged he will have to showcase this during the World Cup if Pakistan wants to have a strong campaign.
Pakistan beat the Netherlands by 81 runs in their World Cup opener, but Azam failed to have an impact with the bat, making just five runs before being dismissed by Colin Ackermann.
“Babar needs to score runs in this World Cup for Pakistan. That’s the go-to guy. If he’s scoring runs, all of Pakistan look in form, every single player. So, I’ll be looking to Babar Azam,” he said in a YouTube video.
Azam has done well with the bat in the past couple of months as he made 76 runs in two Test matches against Sri Lanka at an average of 25.33.
He then made 113 runs in the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan, which included two half-centuries, at an average of 37.66.
Recently, he was in action in the Asia Cup and accumulated 207 runs in five matches, which included a top score of 151, at an average of 51.75.
Pakistan were in good form at the beginning of the tournament as they started with a 238-run win over Nepal before sharing one point apiece with India as their match was abandoned due to rain.
Even though this happened, the men in green made it to the Super Four stage and went on to batter Bangladesh by seven wickets.
However, their unbeaten run was halted when they lost to India by 228 runs.
Pakistan still had a chance to book their spot in the Asia Cup final, but failed to get the job done as Sri Lanka defeated them by two wickets via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method.
The men in green’s next World Cup game will be against Sri Lanka on October 10 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
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