Cheteshwar Pujara: “He needs to rotate strike and hit those odd boundaries. Nowadays, a strike-rate of 70 and 80 is not good enough. You shouldn’t play for your own runs”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Veteran India cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara has told Pakistan batsman Babar Azam not to “play for your own runs”.
He noted that Azam needs to rotate the strike better and hit more boundaries in order to boost his strike-rate.
Many former players criticised the 30-year-old for his performance in Pakistan’s Champions Trophy opener against New Zealand as he made 64 runs off 90 balls, which included six boundaries and a six.
The Lahore native was slammed for batting too slow, which is something Pujara agrees with as he knows modern-day cricket is becoming a lot more fast-paced.
“He needs to rotate strike and hit those odd boundaries. Nowadays, a strike-rate of 70 and 80 is not good enough. You shouldn’t play for your own runs,” he said on Sports Central as quoted by NDTV.
Azam ended the Champions Trophy with 87 runs in two matches at an average of 43.50.
Pakistan were eliminated in the group stage after losing to New Zealand and India, while their final game against Bangladesh was washed out.
The men in green are now touring New Zealand and playing a white-ball series that consists of five T20Is and three ODIs.
Azam was not selected for the T20Is, where Pakistan find themselves trailing 2-0 going into the 3rd T20I on March 21 in Auckland.
However, he was included in the squad for the upcoming ODI series, which starts on March 29 in Napier.
Pakistan Squad for T20I Series against New Zealand: Hasan Nawaz, Omair Yousuf, Mohammad Haris, Abdul Samad, Salman Ali Agha (captain), Irfan Khan Niazi, Khushdil Shah, Shadab Khan, Abbas Afridi, Jahandad Khan, Mohammad Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Sufiyan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed, Usman Khan
Pakistan Squad for ODI Series against New Zealand: Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Salman Ali Agha, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Akif Javed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Irfan Khan Niazi, Naseem Shah, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir
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