KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt offered a piece of advice to Babar Azam, stating the star batter should focus on smart cricket instead of slogging.
The right-handed batter is under stern scrutiny for his string of below-par performances across formats.
He had a forgetful outing in the three-match T20I series against Australia last month, where he only managed 47 runs at a dismal average of 15.66 and strike-rate of 142.42.
His continuous failures gave rise to serious concerns but former opening batter Salman remained confident in the batter’s ability and advised him to work on ‘percentage-based cricket’.
“Babar Azam is a high-class player and should focus on smart, percentage-based cricket instead of slogging,” said Salman.
Salman also advised Babar to further improve his fitness before highlighting the latter’s role of anchoring and building the innings.
“He should work on taking his fitness to next level and adding high-percentage shots to his game. His role is to anchor the innings, score big hundreds and let the team play around him,” stated Salman.
Salman acknowledged the need of big shots in modern day cricket but argued that improving fitness and extending his range with calculated strokes would be more beneficial for the star batter.
“While modern cricket sometimes requires big shots, improving fitness and extending his range with calculated strokes will be far more effective than trying uncharacteristic shots like ramp or reverse sweep.
“But, at the end of the day, Babar is a great player and he knows what’s best for him.”
For the unversed, Babar Azam is all set to represent Pakistan in the upcoming all-format South Africa tour, comprised of three T20Is, as many ODIs and two Tests.
- Babar Azam
