Azhar Ali: “Now just enjoy getting lots of runs… May Allah always bless you. Ameen”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Veteran batsman Azhar Ali wants to see Babar Azam “enjoy getting lots of runs” again now that he no longer captains Pakistan.
Azam resigned from the leadership position in all three formats following the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
The 29-year-old’s form with the bat was a big concern going into the tournament as he hadn’t made many big scores.
During the World Cup, Azam made several encouraging starts, but wasn’t able to convert them into hundreds.
The Lahore-born batsman amassed 320 runs in nine matches, which included four half-centuries, at an average of 40.
Going forward, Azhar wants to see Azam get back to his best and make huge contributions with the bat, which is what earned him his reputation as one of the top batsmen in the world.
“Now just enjoy getting lots of runs… May Allah always bless you. Ameen,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Pakistan won their first two World Cup matches against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Even though they fought back to defeat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they could not make it to the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their last group stage game against England by 93 runs.
Azam recently played for Pakistan in their three-Test series against Australia, which the men in green lost 3-0, and scored 126 runs at an average of 21.
He is now in action in Pakistan’s five-match T20I series against New Zealand and has made scores of 57 and 66 in the first two matches.
Despite his efforts, Pakistan are 2-0 down and will look to avoid a series defeat in the third T20I, which will be played on January 17 in Dunedin.
Pakistan Squad for New Zealand T20I Series: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abbas Afridi, Azam Khan (wicketkeeper), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Usama Mir and Zaman Khan