PAK vs BAN: Pakistan's star batter Babar Azam was seen sweating it out in the training session by playing some brilliant shots ahead of the first Test match against Bangladesh, which would begin from Wednesday in Rawalpindi. He played stunning cover drives on his front foot and smashed brilliant back-foot punches.
His head position looked perfect as he was able to find the middle of the bat in the training session. He looked confident while playing those shots and that is good news for the Men in Green. It will be interesting to see as to whether Babar can score big in the first Test against Bangladesh.
Watch the video here:
Babar Azam is going through a rough patch
Babar had been going through a lean patch in the longest format since the last one and a half years. He has played in six Test matches since January last year, where he scored just 253 runs at an average of 23. Moreover, he also had failed to score a single half-century this time as his highest individual score was 41 against Australia in December last year at the MCG.
But he will aim to bounce back in this Test series. Against Bangladesh, he has scored 242 runs after playing in three Test matches at an average of 80.66. His highest score was 143 against the same opponent in February 2020 in Rawalpindi.
He is on the cusp of scoring 4000 runs in the longest format and is just 102 runs short. He has scored nine centuries and 26 half-centuries in this format till now after he made his debut in 2016, and since he has been through lots of ups and downs.
As Pakistan failed to qualify for the ODI World Cup semis last year, Babar Azam was then removed from the position of captaincy in all formats. But he was reinstated as the captain before the 2024 T20 World Cup.