Luke Wood: “He’s the role model of Pakistan cricket”
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England left-arm fast bowler Luke Wood has lavished praise on limited overs captain Babar Azam, calling him the “role model of Pakistan cricket.”
Azam has long been the men in green’s most consistent run-scorer in all three formats and he has repeatedly won them matches single-handedly.
Recently, Wood played alongside Azam while the latter captained the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL).
The 29-year-old Lahore-born batsman was in outstanding form throughout PSL 9 and ended up finishing as the highest run-scorer with 569 runs in 11 games, which included a century and five fifties, at an average of 56.90 and a strike-rate of 142.60.
“He’s the role model of Pakistan cricket,” Wood was quoted as saying by respected journalist Saj Sadiq on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Wood had a strong campaign for the Zalmi too as he took 12 wickets in 11 games at an average of 29.08 and an economy rate of 8.24.
The Zalmi managed to make it to the playoffs, but were eliminated after losing to the Multan Sultans in the Qualifier and Islamabad United in Eliminator 2.
Azam is now captaining Pakistan in their five-match T20I series against New Zealand and made 14 runs in the second T20I, which the men in green won by seven wickets.
Pakistan hold a 1-0 series lead ahead of the third T20I, which will be played on April 21 in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan Squad for New Zealand T20I Series: Babar Azam (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Amir, Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usama Mir, Usman Khan, Zaman Khan
Non-travelling reserves: Haseebullah Khan, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha