Fakhar Zaman: “Babar Azam got into a ‘bad’ habit of scoring a century in every other match. He’s still scoring 40s even now”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman jokingly said batsman Babar Azam has a “bad habit of scoring a century in every other match”, indicating how good of a player the 29-year-old is.
Zaman’s comments come at a time when Azam is trying to regain his form after going through a rough patch for a few months.
The former captain recently featured in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against Australia and made 126 runs at an average of 21.
He then went on to score 213 runs, which included three fifties, at an average of 42.60 and a strike-rate of 142 in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand.
Having shown some signs of getting back to his best, Zaman insisted that a player of Azam’s class won’t be kept down for long.
“Babar Azam got into a ‘bad’ habit of scoring a century in every other match. He’s still scoring 40s even now,” he was quoted as saying by respected journalist Saj Sadiq on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Azam will now captain the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL), while Zaman will play for the Lahore Qalandars.
PSL 9 will be played from February 17 to March 18 in four cities – Lahore, Multan, Karachi and Rawalpindi.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 9: Babar Azam (captain), Rovman Powell, Saim Ayub, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Khurram Shahzad, Haseebullah Khan, Asif Ali, Naveen-ul-Haq, Umair Afridi, Dan Mousley, Mohammad Zeeshan, Lungi Ngidi, Mehran Mumtaz, Noor Ahmad, Salman Irshad, Arif Yaqoob
Lahore Qalandars Squad for PSL 9: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Haris Rauf, David Wiese, Sikandar Raza, Abdullah Shafique, Zaman Khan, Mirza Tahir Baig, Rashid Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Sahibzada Farhan, Mohammad Imran Jnr, Ahsan Bhatti, Dan Lawrence, Jahandad Khan, Syed Faridoun Mahmood, Shai Hope, Kamran Ghulam, Rassie van der Dussen