Rawalpindi: Babar Azam gets an opportunity to answer all the questions from white-ball coach Mike Hesson over his technique and skillset in Twenty20 cricket when Pakistan takes on South Africa in a three-match series starting Tuesday.
Babar, who needs only nine runs to break Rohit Sharma’s all-time record of 4,231 runs in T20 internationals, hasn’t been selected in the format since December. In that time, Pakistan has played 26 T20s.
Babar has scored 4,223 runs at an average of 39.83, but Hesson had concerns over the premier batter’s strike rate of 129.22. He also wanted improvement in Babar’s technique.
Since taking over in July, Hesson has favored Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman for the top three batting slots.
Without Babar, Pakistan won a bilateral home series against Bangladesh before losing 2-1 in Bangladesh. Pakistan also won 2-1 against West Indies and the tri-series in the United Arab Emirates before losing three times to arch-rival India in the “no handshake” Asia Cup.
Now the absence of Zaman for the series against South Africa has forced Hesson to “endorse” Babar at No. 3, a batting position where he has scored 1,166 runs in 35 T20s at an average of 44.84.
According to Hesson, Zaman wanted to play in first-class cricket to gear up for the ODI series against South Africa in Faisalabad next month and team management agreed to give the left-hander a break from T20 cricket.
“That’s created an opportunity for another top-order player and it’s a great opportunity to get Babar back into the squad,” Hesson said.
“He’s likely to bat at three so it’s a role that I’m very confident that he’ll be able to do well, and it also gives our squad some options coming into the World Cup.”
Babar has a strong fan base, and strong crowds turned out in Lahore and Rawalpindi to cheer for their star player during the recent drawn 1-1 test series against South Africa. They left the stadium in big numbers the moment Babar got out.