Babar Azam has been the center of attention in the cricketing world after dethroning Indian captain, Virat Kohli, as the top ODI batsman, a feat he celebrated with his maiden T20I century against South Africa on Wednesday.
Babar, who now captains Pakistan in all three formats, spoke to his teammate Imam-ul-Haq in a podcast and shared about his journey, habits, and his work ethic. The new ODI king revealed how his habit of learning from his contemporaries has helped him master his craft.
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He told Imam that he learned the art of playing the ball late and refined his ability to place the ball into gaps by observing Kane Williamson.
I have learned to play late from Kane Williamson, and I observed that we get more command and get more time when we play late, and once I started applying that at the international level, it helped me a lot. When you play close (to your body), then you are able to find gaps.
The New Zealand skipper goes about his business in a very methodological manner. Instead of going hard at the ball, he plays it late and with soft hands and finds gaps with surgical precision.
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As evident from his conduct on and off the field, Babar Azam is a down-to-earth person and does not shy away from learning new things from his peers.
Azam was asked the secret behind his turnaround performance from the second T20I, where he hardly managed to get 50 runs off 49 balls, and contrary to that, he went on to smash a blistering hundred on the same number of balls the very next game, and here is how he responded.
I don’t get complacent. I talk to myself and analyze my mistakes and what I have done on any day becomes history. Every day is a new day that comes with a new challenge, and we have to start again.
Babar, after scoring the fastest T20 hundred for Pakistan, has become the highest scorer in the series with 186 runs in three games, followed by Aiden Markram, who has accumulated 168 runs so far. He needs 87 runs from seven games to surpass Kohli as the fastest batsman to 2,000 T20I runs.