Shahid Afridi: “Sometimes, it becomes challenging to explain to Babar Azam’s fans what the team requires from the player. We label Babar as a great player, but sustaining that level is a formidable task”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi admitted that frontline batsman Babar Azam faces an uphill battle if he wants to maintain his status as “a great player.”
Azam’s form has been a hot topic lately as the 29-year-old hasn’t been making the big scores people are used to seeing from him.
Going into the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, there was great anticipation to see if he would dominate with the bat, but he didn’t do that despite finding some consistency.
The Lahore-born cricketer finished with 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
“Sometimes, it becomes challenging to explain to Babar Azam’s fans what the team requires from the player. We label Babar as a great player, but sustaining that level is a formidable task,” Afridi was quoted as saying by Geo Super.
Pakistan won their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before falling to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Even though they fought back to defeat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they were unable to progress to the semi-finals.
The men in green concluded their campaign on a low as England crushed them by 93 runs.
Azam, who stepped down as captain after the World Cup, will now play in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against Australia, which gets 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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