Gautam Gambhir: “I think you’ll see the best of Babar Azam now, you’ll see a completely different Babar Azam”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir is optimistic that people will see “the best of Babar Azam now” since he no longer has the pressure of captaining Pakistan.
Azam resigned as Pakistan captain following the team’s elimination from the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Having shed a big weight off his shoulders, Gambhir thinks everyone will be treated to a “completely different” version of the 29-year-old.
“I think you’ll see the best of Babar Azam now, you’ll see a completely different Babar Azam because I had picked Babar Azam ahead of the World Cup. I told him that he’d be the batter of the tournament, but the captaincy pressure [let him down],” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam recently featured in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against Australia and scored 126 runs at an average of 21.
He performed a lot better in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand, finishing with 213 runs, which included three fifties, at an average of 42.60 and a strike-rate of 142.
Azam is now captaining the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL), which got underway on February 17.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 9: Babar Azam (captain), Rovman Powell, Saim Ayub, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Asif Ali, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Naveen-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Salman Irshad, Arif Yaqoob, Umair Afridi, Dan Mousley, Haseebullah Khan, Mohammad Zeeshan, Mehran Mumtaz, Luke Wood, Sufiyan Muqeem, Waqar Salamkheil, Arshad Iqbal, Gus Atkinson, Shamar Joseph
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