Srinagar: Australia star pacer Josh Hazlewood has hailed Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, terming his numbers as unbelievable.
Hazlewood while speaking on Fox Cricket, included the Pakistan captain in their One Day International World XI.
“He’s [Babar] probably a little younger than other guys, he’s sort of following the footsteps pretty quickly behind Virat. He’s a few runs behind but again his numbers are unbelievable,” Hazlewood said in the video.
On the other hand, top-order batter Usman Khawaja said Babar’s fast hands allowed him to punch the ball between point and extra cover region.
“He’s got the innate ability. I’ve seen it where people bowling nice channel and he sort of gets on top of it and smacks you through anywhere from mid-off through cover, through point,” said Khawaja.
“A lot of people trying to get ones off that ball but he just got these fast hands and smacks it and he finds gaps between the points and extra cover for four.
“Beautiful player of the ball, excellent player of spin. He’s got all the attributes too. I couldn’t put him on three because of Kohli so he slips down to four.”
Marnus Labuschagne said Babar had a great ability to hit the ball on top of the bounce and play a bit straighter as compared to Virat Kohli and Steve Smith.
“He’s [Babar] got a bit of a lower bat. He sort of stands up on top of the ball, a little bit more and he hits quite straight and where you know Kohli and Steve can tend to hit a bit of square up. I think he forces the ball down the ground really well,” Marnus said.
“He’s so versatile. He plays a high tempo game naturally and having played against Babar, on wickets that don’t bounce, you know when you are going to India for World Cup, there may not be too much bounce towards the back end, you almost feel like you don’t hang him and get him out,” he further added.