Babar Azam: “After every six I said to him, ‘don’t force the issue’. He said okay but then ignored me and started hitting sixes anyway. So I then said to him, ‘do whatever you want, just don’t get out'”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan captain Babar Azam revealed that opening batsman Fakhar Zaman ignored him when he advised him to stop forcing it whenever he hit a six.
With Zaman turning a deaf ear to his advice, Azam gave up and instructed him to “do whatever you want.”
The 33-year-old opener was dropped after Pakistan’s opening game against the Netherlands in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, but returned after missing five matches and hammered 81 and 126 not out against Bangladesh and New Zealand respectively.
It was during the New Zealand game that Azam witnessed Zaman’s awesome hitting power, but the 29-year-old admitted that he was worried about him getting out.
“After every six I said to him, ‘don’t force the issue’. He said okay but then ignored me and started hitting sixes anyway. So I then said to him, ‘do whatever you want, just don’t get out’,” he was quoted as saying by Geo Super.
Pakistan triumphed in their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing four in a row to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite bouncing back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they missed out on the semi-finals.
The men in green ended their campaign on a low as England battered 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, while Zaman was not included in the squad.
The first Test between Pakistan and Australia begins 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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