Pakistan’s batting maestro Babar Azam expressed dissatisfaction over his demotion to one-down position in the national team’s batting order during a press briefing on Monday following Peshawar Zalmi’s narrow victory against Karachi Kings at the National Bank Arena.
The former Pakistan skipper has accumulated 498 runs and is likely to get past the five-hundred run mark this season with five fifties and a century to his name in 10 innings.
While expressing his thoughts on Pakistan team management’s decision to move him from the opening spot, he said, “I wasn’t under any pressure to score runs as an opener for Zalmi. I don’t take pressure in any situation. It was the Pakistan team’s demand at the time. I did that for Pakistan. If I was asked individually, I wasn’t satisfied with the decision to bat at one down position. However, I did that for Pakistan.”
Since the New Zealand series, the 29-year-old has been playing in the one-down position, and even in that particular series, he scored 3 back to back fifties in the first three T20Is of the five-match away series.
Babar has also improved his strike rate dramatically as an opener especially during the powerplay in PSL since last season. He recorded a strike rate of 155.26 in PSL Season 8 while he boasts a strike rate of 159.40 in PSL 9.
Before PSL 8 Babar Azam had a strike rate of above 125.00 in only one season since his PSL debut in 2017 which displays his remarkable improvement as a batter who can exploit the gaps in powerplay with ease.
Pakistan team management decided to split the opening pair of Babar and Rizwan in T20Is after the rise of Saim Ayub who has performed prolifically in domestic red-ball and white-ball cricket over the past year.
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