Zak Crawley: “I would never say that Babar Azam is out of form. The way he plays is beautiful, he is a graceful player”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
England opener Zak Crawley believes it would be a mistake for anyone to assume that Pakistan batsman Babar Azam “is out of form”.
Crawley knows that the 30-year-old is one good innings away from getting back to his best.
Azam has been the backbone of Pakistan’s batting line-up for years, but over the last few months, he has not been able to make big scores consistently.
Despite this, Crawley heaped praise on the Lahore native calling him “a graceful player” who bats beautifully.
“I would never say that Babar Azam is out of form. The way he plays is beautiful, he is a graceful player,” he was quoted as saying by A Sports.
Azam featured in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh and mustered 64 runs at an average of 16.
Following this, he proceeded to play in the three-match Test series against England, but was only picked for the first Test in Multan, where he made scores of 30 and 5.
After the England series, he toured Australia with Pakistan and scored 80 runs in three ODIs at an average of 80.
Azam then proceeded to make 47 runs in three T20Is at an average of 15.66.
The men in green are now taking on Zimbabwe in a three-match ODI series, where they trail 1-0 after losing the first match by 80 runs via the DLS method.
The second ODI will take place on November 26 in Bulawayo.
Once the ODI series concludes, Pakistan and Zimbabwe will play three T20Is, with the first match scheduled to be held on December 1 in Bulawayo.
Pakistan Squad for Zimbabwe ODI Series: Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Irfan Khan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shahnawaz Dahani, Tayyab Tahir
Pakistan Squad for Zimbabwe T20I Series: Ahmed Daniyal, Arafat Minhas, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Jahandad Khan, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Irfan Khan, Omair bin Yousuf, Qasim Akram, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir, Usman Khan