AB de Villiers: “Huge rock in that batting line-up of Pakistan”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
AB de Villiers, the South Africa legend, has called Pakistan captain Babar Azam the rock in his team’s batting line-up.
Azam has been his country’s most consistent run-scorer in all three formats for the past couple of years.
On top of that, he has regularly rescued Pakistan from precarious situations and played match-winning knocks that resulted in tremendous victories.
“Huge rock in that batting line-up of Pakistan,” De Villiers said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Azam recently scored 76 runs in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Sri Lanka at an average of 25.33.
He then went on to make 113 runs in three ODIs against Afghanistan, which included two half-centuries, at an average of 37.66.
His latest assignment was leading Pakistan in 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 kicked off their campaign with a comprehensive 238-run win over Nepal before sharing one point apiece with India after their match was washed out.
Despite this, the men in green made it through to the Super Four stage and beat Bangladesh by seven wickets.
However, nothing went according to plan after this as Pakistan lost to India by 228 runs.
They still had a chance to advance to the Asia Cup final, but failed to do so as they succumbed to a two-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method.
Azam is now captaining Pakistan in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he has made scores of 5, 10 and 50 in the team’s first three games against the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and India respectively.
Having racked up two wins and one loss, which came against India, the men in green will be keen to secure a victory when they face Australia on October 20 in Bengaluru.
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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