World No. 1 Twenty20 International (T20I) batsman, Babar Azam, has lived up to the expectations in the last two series Pakistan have played and whitewashed their opponents.
World No. 1 Twenty20 International (T20I) batsman, Babar Azam, has lived up to the expectations in the last two series Pakistan have played and whitewashed their opponents.
Last week, Pakistan thrashed Australia in the three-match T20I series as the hosts won all the matches with an ease. In those matches, Azam's scores read like this: 68*, 45 and 50. That was followed by scores of 7, 40 and 79 against New Zealand as Pakistan continued to dominate in the shortest format.
After winning the first two games of the three-match T20I series against New Zealand, Pakistan dominated in the dead rubber match as well which was played on Sunday.
Batting first, Pakistan posted a total of 166 in 20 overs, thanks to half-centuries from Mohammad Hafeez and eventual Player of the Match Azam, who scored 79 off 58 deliveries. In reply to that, the BlackCaps did not even last all of 20 overs as they were bowled out for 119 runs in 16.5 overs.
In the meanwhile, when Azam, was on 48, he completed 1,000 runs in T20Is in just 26 innings, bettering India's Virat Kohli's record of reaching the mark in 27 innings.
Azam was also the fastest batsman to reach 1,000 T20I runs in regards to the time taken since debut (two years and two months).
Post the match and victory, speaking about Kohli, Azam said, “Virat Kohli is my role model and I always try to follow his style of batting. The best thing about Kohli is the confidence with which he comes on the crease. He has hunger [for runs] and starts his every innings as if he achieved nothing in the inns before.”
This was not for the first time Azam has spoken about Kohli’s role in his game. “I do not just copy Virat Kohli, but I really follow him. I dream of becoming like him. Some people compare me with Virat, while there’s no comparison as I am just in the beginning. I feel that I cannot be just like him, but it can be closer to his instinct of playing,” he once had said in an interview.
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