Mohammad Hafeez: “Surely your hunger to get more runs contributing [to] winning matches for [the] team will grow more with time”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
New Pakistan team director Mohammad Hafeez is convinced that batsman Babar Azam’s “hunger to get more runs” will “grow more with time.”
Azam has been Pakistan’s most consistent run-scorer over the past few years, but he will now be free to focus solely on his batting after stepping down as captain.
His last assignment before giving up the leadership role was the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he made 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
Even though the 29-year-old’s form has not been at its best in the last couple of months, Hafeez is confident that the Lahore native will start posting bigger scores and winning more matches for Pakistan in the future.
“Surely your hunger to get more runs contributing [to] winning matches for [the] team will grow more with time,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Pakistan won their first two World Cup games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before falling to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite bouncing back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they failed to advance to the semi-finals.
The men in green ended their campaign in dismal fashion as England crushed them by 93 runs.
Azam will now play for 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