Salman Butt: “He should work on taking his fitness to the next level and adding high-percentage shots to his game. His role is to anchor the innings, score big hundreds, and let the team play around him”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt believes batsman Babar Azam has to take “his fitness to the next level” in order to become more successful.
Azam’s form has been a major concern over the last few months as his runs have dried up in all three formats.
Salman noted that alongside boosting his fitness, the 30-year-old needs to play smart cricket instead of slogging and focus on scoring big hundreds.
“Babar Azam is a high-class player and should focus on smart, percentage-based cricket instead of slogging. He should work on taking his fitness to the next level and adding high-percentage shots to his game. His role is to anchor the innings, score big hundreds, and let the team play around him,” he told Paktv.tv as quoted by PakPassion.
“While modern cricket sometimes requires hitting big shots, improving fitness and extending his range with calculated strokes will be far more effective than trying uncharacteristic shots like ramps or reverse sweeps. But at the end of the day, Babar is a great player and knows what’s best for him.”
Azam recently featured in Pakistan’s white-ball series against Australia and made 80 runs in three ODIs at an average of 80.
He then proceeded to score 47 runs in three T20Is at an average of 15.66.
Following their trip to Australia, Pakistan headed to Zimbabwe, but Azam was rested for both the ODI and T20I series.
He returned for the tour of South Africa and began by amassing 31 runs in two T20Is at an average of 15.50.
Azam enjoyed a lot more success in the three-match ODI series as he finished with 148 runs, which included two fifties, at an average of 49.33.
He continued to show signs of improvement in the two-Test series, accumulating 193 runs, which included three half-centuries, at an average of 48.25.
Next up for Pakistan will be a two-Test series against the West Indies, which will take place in Karachi and Multan from January 16 to 28.
Pakistan Squad for West Indies Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Kashif Ali, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Noman Ali, Rohail Nazir (wicketkeeper), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha