Peshawar Zalmi Skipper Babar Unhappy to Bat at 1 down position

Babar Azam opens for Peshawar Zalmi with youngster Saim Ayub in PSL 9, In terms of runs Babar Azam is the player who has the most runs in PSL 9, he has 498 runs in 9 innings with an impressive average of 62.25.

In the last game, Zalmi clinched a 2-run victory against Karachi Kings, Babar was asked about the importance of runs as an opener batsman after he was moved to a down spot in the Pakistan team.

“I wasn’t under any pressure to score runs as an opener [for Zalmi]. I don’t take pressure off anything. It was the Pakistan team’s demand at the time. I did that for Pakistan. If I was asked individually, I wasn’t satisfied with the decision to bat at one down position. However, I did that for Pakistan,” Babar said.

This decision of the Pakistan Board has split the best opening pair of Babar Azam and g Mohammad Rizwan in T20I during the last series against the Black Caps in which the Pakistan Team lost 4-1.

However, Babar Azam’s Partner Mohammad Rizwan was also not happy with that decision, Rizwan was asked to do the opening with Saim Ayub.

During that series, Mohammad Rizwan conveyed this message to the Pakistan Board that dividing the opening pair would not be good for the whole team. This pair has been representing Pakistan for many years. Rizwan after losing the series said:

“You can say that it [breaking the opening pair] has hurt Pakistan. I can say that Babar Bhai has a big heart. We both agreed that there was no issue. We both told the management that they could try whatever combination they wanted. The difficulty arises when you break things that are already working well. However, management is looking at what can be extracted best from different combinations,” Rizwan stated.