Rashid Latif: “Talking about Babar Azam, he was a skilled player, but in the face of a lean patch, he started charging the ball harder, which made his shot selection really tough”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Rashid Latif believes Babar Azam is making his own shot selection tougher as he has “started charging the ball harder”.
Azam is currently going through a turbulent period with his batting, whereby he has either posted low scores or not been able to convert his starts into big knocks.
Latif feels it has come to a point where the 29-year-old is “failing to decide which ball to hit or leave” and thus believes he has to work on the basics and keep things simple.
“Talking about Babar Azam, he was a skilled player, but in the face of a lean patch, he started charging the ball harder, which made his shot selection really tough,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“He never gets played on; he always gets troubled tinkering with the ball going away from him. He is literally failing to decide which ball to hit or leave. The entire problem in his batting lies here only.”
Azam recently featured in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh and failed to have an impact, amassing 64 runs at an average of 16.
Next up for him will be Pakistan’s three-match Test series against England, which will take place from October 7 to 28.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Hurraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Shaheen Shah Afridi
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