Misbah-ul-Haq: “We were expecting Babar to be among the top two or three run-getters in [the] conditions of India”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq said he was shocked Babar Azam flopped so badly in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup as he expected the 29-year-old to be the second or third-highest run-scorer.
Misbah thought Azam would excel in the conditions in India, but he failed to make any notable scores despite getting off to a few encouraging starts.
The Lahore native scored 320 runs in nine matches, which included four half-centuries, at an average of 40.
“We were expecting Babar to be among the top two or three run-getters in [the] conditions of India,” Misbah was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan began their World Cup campaign with consecutive wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before faltering against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Even though they fought back to defeat Bangladesh and New Zealand, it was not enough to get them into the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their last group stage match against England by 93 runs.
Azam, who stepped down as captain after the World Cup, will now represent Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which starts on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series:Â 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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