'You Also Need Experience...,' Babar Azam's Bold Warning To Selectors For T20 World 2024
Babar Azam (Source: X.com)
Former Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has endured a tough time on and off the field for the last five-six months as after the World Cup 2023 setback, the right-hander had to step down due to differences with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), who wanted a newer looking group.
Babar, who since then had a difficult time with the bat in Australia, returned with decent figures in the T20I series against New Zealand thereafter. During a recent interview with Cricbuzz, Azam, who is currently playing for Rangpur Riders in the Bangladesh Premier League, spoke on the context of differentiation between shorter and longer formats of the game.
The right-hander has mentioned that Test cricket takes full check of your skills, whereas T20 is more about staying positive and making a strategy around how you want to score runs against different bowlers.
"Cricket is a game of mindset. A Test match is played for five days and all your skillsets are tested there. In white-ball cricket, you have to be a bit more positive, especially in T20s. You have to always be on your toes - like how you want to go about it if you are batting first and what will be your method if you are chasing. You have to assess which bowler you want to target and who you don't want to go after,"
Further, when asked about the requirement of having youngsters and seniors in the side, Babar went on to say that you need both types of players in the mix because, without each other, a team is always incomplete as, on the one hand, the experience players know how to handle pressure whereas the young guns play the game with much more freedom and confidence.
"Young blood is good but at the same time you also need experience (in T20s) because only an experience player can bail you out in a difficult situation - like [he will know] how to handle the pressure. I feel both is required [experience and young blood]. You need to have senior players because if you have a combination of young and experience, it will be beneficial for the youngster as well as the experience ones."
This was in relation to the fact that the Pakistan board might have been looking at a younger side for the T20 World Cup in June later this year, as Azam just made his intentions clear about the squad's composition, giving a prominent sign to selectors.
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