Hasan Ali: “Babar and I made our debut around the same time. I’ve seen him rise, score runs, and work hard in cricket. He truly is the king of Pakistan cricket”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Veteran pace bowler Hasan Ali said Babar Azam “truly is the king of Pakistan cricket”.
Hasan noted that he and Azam made their debuts around the same time and since then, he has seen the 30-year-old establish his reputation as one of the best batsmen in the world.
Even though Azam is currently going through a rough patch right now, Hasan knows he is capable of overcoming it and rising to the top again.
“Babar and I made our debut around the same time. I’ve seen him rise, score runs, and work hard in cricket. He truly is the king of Pakistan cricket,” he told 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 games, which included three fifties, at an average of 36 and a strike-rate of 128.57.
His performance wasn’t good enough to get him into Pakistan’s squad for the T20I series against Bangladesh in Lahore, the T20I tour of Bangladesh, and the three-match T20I series against the West Indies.
However, he did make the cut for the three-match ODI series against the West Indies in Trinidad and scored 56 runs at an average of 18.66.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be a T20I tri-series against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Afghanistan in Sharjah, which will take place from August 29 to September 7.
Afterwards, the men in green will take part in the 2025 Asia Cup, which will be held in the UAE from September 9 to 28.
Unfortunately for Azam, he was not included in Pakistan’s squad for the T20I tri-series and Asia Cup.
Pakistan squad for UAE T20I tri-series and 2025 Asia Cup: 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, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem