Pakistan cricket batting coach Mohammed Yousuf said on Thursday that star batter Babar Azam is playing exceptional cricket at the moment, both as a player and captain of his side.
Azam has been in a fine form in 2022. He is the world’s leading batter in ODI and T20I formats while he is in the third spot in the Test rankings. Across all formats this year, Azam has played 15 matches and has scored 1,406 runs in 19 innings at an average of 78.11. His best individual score is 196. Five centuries and ten half-centuries have come out of his willow this year. “Babar Azam has been showing everyone for the past two-three years that he is a big player and performs even better in pressure situations. A player becomes big when he performs well under pressure. He is on a path towards becoming great in the game. The way he is batting in all formats, that too with the responsibility of captaincy, is an achievement. Even the team responds to him well. As a player and as a captain, he is playing exceptional cricket,” said Yousuf at a press conference.
Ahead of his team’s high-octane clash with Pakistan, the batting coach said that the team is not looking at that particular match only, but focusing on winning the Asia Cup.
India will start its campaign with a big contest against Pakistan on August 28.
Yousuf said that the practice session of Pakistani players was extremely good and players toiled hard despite the heat.
“It is hot and humid. But they are professionals. They practiced really hard. Of course, they are humans, they will feel heat and weakness. But they are enjoying it,” he added.
The Asian Cricket Council’s marquee event returns after a four-year interval with the 2022 edition of the Men’s Asia Cup. Being played in the T20 format, across two venues. Dubai International Cricket Stadium will host nine games including the final, while Sharjah Cricket Stadium will host four games, starting from August 27 through September 11.
Defending champions India are also the most successful team, having won the trophy seven times. While the last edition of the tournament was held in an ODI format, this edition will feature the T20 format.
Here are the squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (C), Shadab Khan (VC) Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir. (ANI)
