Shoaib Akhtar: “We should play aggressively. Babar should bat with a strike rate of around 120”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Iconic 161.3 kph Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has had enough of former captain Babar Azam’s slow batting, saying he has to boost his strike-rate to “around 120.”
Azam’s strike-rate has been a hot topic, especially in T20Is, but having seen how long it took him to score his runs in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, Akhtar wants the 29-year-old to up his scoring rate in ODIs as well.
He noted that with teams needing bigger totals on the board to win these days, it is imperative that the frontline batsmen stand up and make valuable contributions without wasting too many deliveries.
“We should play aggressively. Babar should bat with a strike rate of around 120,” the Rawalpindi Express was quoted as saying by respected journalist Saj Sadiq on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Azam stepped down as captain after the World Cup, where he scored 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
Pakistan began by triumphing over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before suffering four successive defeats against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite fighting back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they failed to make it to the semi-finals.
The men in green ended their campaign in disappointing fashion as England battered them by 93 runs.
Azam will now play for Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which will get underway on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi
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