Aaron Finch: “100 percent. He tries to out-bat anybody”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Australia opener Aaron Finch feels Steve Smith will try to “out-bat” Pakistan star Babar Azam in the Big Bash League (BBL).
His comments come after Azam was signed by the Sydney Sixers for BBL 15, while Smith also plays for the same team.
Even though both players are extremely talented and will likely bat together, Finch thinks Smith will still attempt to outperform Azam.
“100 percent. He tries to out-bat anybody,” he said on The Surge: Big Bash Podcast as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam was recently involved in the 2025 Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he captained the Peshawar Zalmi and accumulated 288 runs in 10 matches, which included three fifties, at an average of 36 and a strike-rate of 128.57.
Following PSL 10, he was not included in Pakistan’s squad for the three-match T20I series against Bangladesh, the T20I tour of Bangladesh, and the T20I series against the West Indies.
The 30-year-old ended up playing in the three-match ODI series against the West Indies, but wasn’t at his best as he was restricted to 56 runs at an average of 18.66.
Pakistan Squad for West Indies T20I Series: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Nawaz, Sahibzada Farhan (wicketkeeper), Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Sufiyan Muqeem
Pakistan Squad for West Indies ODI Series: Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Salman Ali Agha, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Sufiyan Muqeem