"We will look to play fearless cricket on this tour" : Babar Azam

[Firebat]

"I feel we played a little too aggressively"

What what what?????

I don't think he's talking about his own innings but he's trying to reference all the batsmen that threw away their wicket at crucial times trying to smash it out the park. Rizwan, Sharjeel, Haider, Faheem, Hassan.

 

[nam]

atleast Rizwan played some fearless cricket today or rather mindless

 

[UzmanBeast]

Well I don't know what definition of aggressive he's using, but we played like turtles to say the least.

Rahul Dravid would be proud of the defensive technique demonstrated by Pakistan in a T20 match.

 

[Coolcapri]

Actually he played to conservatively, If he has attack then other batsman couldn't be under pressure. He is to blame for the loss.

 

[Forward Defensive Push]

Babar achieved what he wanted... 50 runs - average safeguarded and statpadding

 

[sindhiboy]

Babars slow batting may have made the other batsmen play rash shots and give their wickets away.

Still doesn't excuse the rest of the batsmen

 

[MenInG]

"This innings was one I had been waiting to play for a while" : Babar Azam

Babar Azam speaking at end of the 3rd T20I

"Rizwan played an outstanding innings for us today and I give him full credit for what is a very difficult thing to do as he was fasting and during that he batted and kept wickets also; Watching him gave me so much strength and this is the kind of thing that helps the team gel as well"

"First of all I would like to thank the Almighty for helping me to play this innings; This innings was one I had been waiting to play for a while"

"I had planned to make sure that if I got an opportunity like this then I would achieve this and that is what happened with the help of the Almighty and I am very happy about it"

"I always play according to my strengths and plan my innings based on what the side needs; So if the require run rate average is around 10 then you have to take some risks"

"My dream of being top ranked player in ODIs was achieved today, and that was a dream for a while for me to be the number one player in ODIs; Behind that were a lot of struggles and sacrifices; It was always my aim to improve my game day by day and to learn new things; As we know the modern day cricket is very quick and one has to change their game according to that"

"We must give credit to Malan and Markram for the way they played until the first 10 overs but then we must also praise our bowlers who fought back in the end to restrict South Africa to just above 200"

 

[marlonbrowndo]

I criticized him after the last game but all one can ask for as a fan is for the player to respond with the bat. And that is exactly what Babar did today. And more

 

[Mean&Green]

In Sha Allah many more to come

 

[160KPH]

Babar letting his bat do all the talking

 

[Bilal7]

I'm not surprised one bit. Pakistan rarely get to play on these sort of wickets and Babar rarely gets to bat without wickets falling at the other end. Take those two shackles off and you get a proper batsman who can strike at 200 playing good shots.

He has been the best batsman in the world over the last two years and he certainly has it in him to remain the best in the world for years to come, InshaAllah.

 

[Ami]

Shahenshah Babar

 

[Bewal Express]

What is becoming very obvious is that Babar needs a quick start to avoid the anxiety which leads to ugliness. I would like to see Babar hit the gym and increase his power and he could learn a thing or 2 from Hasan Ali on quick hands and bat speed against spinners.

 

[guna]

Babar is the best at the moment. If he plays such innings in WT20, he will be undisputed no.1.

The likes of Rohit, Kohli are in decline. They have passed their prime. Only Kane Williamson will be Babar’s competition for the next 5years.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

These two should be our openers in the t20i format. Fakhar can follow them at 3 I suppose.
If they don't open, they can't really perform at their best in t20s. Fakhar might well be a natural opener but I think the top 3 would be stronger with Rizwan, Babar and Fakhar rather than Fakhar,Rizwan and Babar.

 

[MenInG]

These two should be our openers in the t20i format. Fakhar can follow them at 3 I suppose.
If they don't open, they can't really perform at their best in t20s. Fakhar might well be a natural opener but I think the top 3 would be stronger with Rizwan, Babar and Fakhar rather than Fakhar,Rizwan and Babar.

Babar looking in better shape now - but could well be that these pitches suit his style of batting?

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Babar looking in better shape now - but could well be that these pitches suit his style of batting?

The pitches in India are very batting friendly as well. 200 plus scores are pretty common there.

If we go back to 2016 wt20i where where we lost 2 of our games chasing 180plus against NZ and Aus, it was because of lack of boundaries after the powerplay overs. Our new batters on the crease were struggling to keep up with the pace of the chase.
With Babar and Rizwan settled, they have shown the ability to take the game deep while keeping up with the run rate.

I would not be confident with Babar and Rizwan coming in the 10th over and trying to chase at 10-11 per over as both of them need time to get going. Fakhar, Haider and to an extent Hafeez(with his recent form) find it easy to go after the bowlers from the get go.

 

[MenInG]

Pakistan captain speaking after end of the 3rd T20I

"First of all I would like to thank CSA for providing such excellent facilities for us, on and off the field"

"I would also like to thanks the fans for their support - with such high intensity games being played, it would have been nice to have them here but unfortunately due to covid-19 that didn't happen but they still provided us support on Social media"

"The game became a high intensity one after we lost 2 set batsmen at the half-way mark then the pressure seemed to increase on the middle order"

"We will sit together and talk about the middle-order batting and give the guys some confidence and see how we can fix this issue; We will see where we are making mistakes and try and fix those errors and play with a better combination next time"

"This was a great effort by the team and when we left Pakistan, we had done so with the intention of winning this series and would give our 110% - and that is what happened with Fakhar performing outstandingly well in ODIs , as did others as well"

"When you perform well in all three departments of the game then the results are good as well"

"I always try to give my 100%, to enjoy the game and to play to my strengths and to play in accordance with the team's needs"

"You gain a lot of confidence when you win a series in South Africa at their home turf; We will discuss our mistakes but the main point is to give confidence to the guys as the whole game revolves around confidence; Not all players in the group can always perform the best, but those who are doing well need to carry on"

"We are going to Zimbabwe next and then we have the World Cup later this year so we are hoping to finalize our combination for the World Cup"

"A lot of pressure came on our middle order due to loss of quick wickets and lack of good partnerships"

"Our bowlers did a good job to get their set batsmen out and to restrict them to 144"

"We intend to play with the same intensity in Zimbabwe and to use the confidence we have gained here; We will play fearless cricket and play in the same way we would like to play in the World Cup"

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Babar Azam named Man of the Series:<br><br>Innings 4<br>Runs 210<br>Average 52.50<br>Strike-rate 143.83<br>Hundreds 1<br>Fifties 1<br>Fours 26<br>Sixes 4<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SAvPAK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SAvPAK</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1383097798544011275?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Iddy]

These two should be our openers in the t20i format. Fakhar can follow them at 3 I suppose.
If they don't open, they can't really perform at their best in t20s. Fakhar might well be a natural opener but I think the top 3 would be stronger with Rizwan, Babar and Fakhar rather than Fakhar,Rizwan and Babar.

With the weak middle order, I would be inclined to to try the following:

1 - Rizwan
2 - Sharjeel (should be played as an opener)
3 - Fakhar
4 - Babar
5 - Hafeez (can hit down the order)
6 - open batting spot (power hitter)
7 - Nawaz (Imad when back in team)
8 - Faheem
9 - Hasan
10 - Shaheen
11 - Rauf

Bowling has also been a concern so could do with Amir if possible. Not sure what happened to Ruman Raees but was also a decent bowler in the T20 format.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

With the weak middle order, I would be inclined to to try the following:

1 - Rizwan
2 - Sharjeel (should be played as an opener)
3 - Fakhar
4 - Babar
5 - Hafeez (can hit down the order)
6 - open batting spot (power hitter)
7 - Nawaz (Imad when back in team)
8 - Faheem
9 - Hasan
10 - Shaheen
11 - Rauf

Bowling has also been a concern so could do with Amir if possible. Not sure what happened to Ruman Raees but was also a decent bowler in the T20 format.

This would be my XI
Rizwan
Babar
Fakhar
Hafeez
Malik
Imad
Fahim/Rohail
Shadab (if he returns to bowling form)
Hasan
Shaheen
Rauf/Hasnain

I wouldn't like Amir to come in. Retirement isn't a joke which you can take as per your convenience.
Sharjeel is going to cost more runs in the field than he is going to score on average.

Rumman has been injured for 8-9 months now. If fit with recent matches under his belt, I wouldn't hesitate to pick him.

 

[shamaan]

I think this is the line up they should go with.

Babar
Rizwan
Fakhar
Hafeez
Haider ali
Imad wasim
Fahim
Hassan Ali
Nawaz
Husnain
Shaheen

Bench
Shadab,malik,Azam Khan,husnain,wasim

 

[Rana]

It’s been over a year

Have we played any ‘fearless’ cricket under Babar Azam?

 

[Amjid Javed]

It’s been over a year

Have we played any ‘fearless’ cricket under Babar Azam?

Babar was misquoted he meant we will play cricket with Fear.

The combo of Babar / saqi / mo wasim / rameez is the most uninspiring and gutless form of cricket being played.

Pakistan have limited talent but the negative mindset is making the output worse.

 

[Rana]

Babar was misquoted he meant we will play cricket with Fear.

The combo of Babar / saqi / mo wasim / rameez is the most uninspiring and gutless form of cricket being played.

Pakistan have limited talent but the negative mindset is making the output worse.

Surely they can play fearless cricket tonight in this dead rubber against Bangladesh?

 

[shaz619]

Surely they can play fearless cricket tonight in this dead rubber against Bangladesh?

Indeed maybe Fakhar can open like he did against Hong Kong

 

[Rana]

1 six in two games

What is this fearless cricket?!?!!?

 

[zacattakk]

1 six in two games

What is this fearless cricket?!?!!?

Have to agree, that stat really is worrisome.