Babar Azam fires massive warning to Shaheen Shah Afridi after his strong run in PSL 2024

Former Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has said he was not satisfied with the decision to leave the opener slot for the Pakistan team in T20Is. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were the successful set of openers for Pakistan in T20Is for the last few years.

However, management broke the opening pair during New Zealand vs Pakistan T20I series in January this year. Saim Ayub was picked as one of the openers as Babar Azam was moved to a one-down position.

Notably, Babar Azam has shown a spectacular performance as an opener for Peshawar Zalmi in the ongoing PSL 2024. The right-handed batter has mustered 498 runs in 9 games in the tournament averaging 62+. He is also the leading run-getter in the league.

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I wasn’t satisfied with the decision to bat at the one-down position- Babar Azam

While speaking to the media after a recent PSL 2024 game, Babar Azam was asked whether he liked the decision to bat one-down for Pakistan in T20Is. To this, he replied that he wasn’t satisfied with the decision but did it for the Pakistan team.

“I wasn’t under any pressure to score runs as an opener [for Zalmi]. I don’t take pressure off anything. 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,” he said.

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Earlier, Mohammad Rizwan said that breaking the opening pair hurt the team.

“You can say that it has hurt Pakistan. I can say that Babar bhai has a big heart. We both agreed that there is no issue. We both told the management that they can try whatever combination they want, ” Rizwan had said during the PAK vs NZ series.

Notably, Babar Azam did a decent job at one-down position in the series, hitting 213 runs in 5 games at an average of 42.60. The right-handed batter shattered 3 fifties in the series. However, Pakistan faced a humiliating 4-1 defeat in the series. Pakistan lost the first four games before winning the final encounter.

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Peshawar Zalmi reaches playoffs in PSL 2024

Meanwhile, Babar Azam-led Peshawar Zalmi has qualified for playoffs in PSL 2024. Winning 6 games and losing 3 out of 10, they take the top spot in the points table with 13 points. Recently, they won their last match of the league stage against Karachi Kings by 2 runs.

Azam scored a half-century in the encounter to drive his team to victory. He also won the Player of the Match award. The PSL 2024 final takes place on March 18. Multan Sultans, Islamabad United, and Quetta Gladiators are the other teams who have reached playoffs in PSL 2024.