Mickey Arthur: “We know he’s a very, very fine batsman”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Recently removed Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur has come to the defence of under fire batsman Babar Azam, saying he is a great player.
Azam’s form with the bat has been a thorn in Pakistan’s side for the past few months as the 29-year-old has not been able to put up many big scores.
During the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, he rediscovered some of his consistency, but failed to convert any of his starts into hundreds.
Azam finished the tournament with 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
“We know he’s a very, very fine batsman,” Arthur was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Pakistan started off with consecutive wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before suffering four straight losses to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite bouncing back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they failed to book their spot in the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their final group stage game against England by 93 runs.
Azam, who resigned as captain after the World Cup, is now representing Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia and made scores of 21 and 14 in the first Test in Perth, which Pakistan lost by 360 runs.
The second Test will begin on December 26 in Melbourne.
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, Mohammad Nawaz and Shaheen Shah Afridi
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