In his latest interview to renowned broadcaster Mark Nicholas, Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur has shared a heartwarming story of the Men in Green’s finest young batsman Babar Azam. The exciting prospect from Lahore has dominated the limited-overs fold so far. He is averaging over 50 and is expecting to deliver big in the foreseeable fixtures for Pakistan.
On his return from South Africa, recently, Arthur in his interview to ESPNcricinfo revealed the 24-year-old star batsman Azam is sending his entire earning home. He has also rated Azam among five gifted batsmen in the cricketing world.
“Babar Azam is among the five most talented batsmen in the world. Do you know he sends every penny of his income home – most of them do,” Arthur told ESPNcricinfo.
Azam is a family man:
Eventually, it reflects how grounded the youngster who’s further shouldered the responsibility of being a family man.
Also, the 50-year-old Arthur, who hails from Johannesburg asserted Babar is excited when his father Azam Siddique has gifted him a ‘Honda’ car. So much so, Arthur has compared the car with Australian Chris Lynn’s luxurious Lamborghini.
“Then, one night round the family dinner table, his father made a short speech saying how much honour his son had brought to the family and how they loved him. Whereupon he gave Babar a set of car keys and outside the door was a brand new white Honda,” Arthur added.
The Pakistan team has performed poorly in South African conditions. However, there’re a couple of positives to look at during the bilateral series.
Also, Pakistan faced a whitewash in the three-match Test series, before losing the five-match One-day International series by 3-2. However, giving their best under the leadership of interim skipper Shoaib Malik, the visitors lost the T20I series owing to a scoreline of 2-1 in the Proteas favour.
Azam and his aptitude:
Azam has been delivering goods for Pakistan irrespective of conditions. Also, at times many compare him with batting giant Virat Kohli. However, far from the comparisons, the compact right-handed batsman Azam made his family proud. Since he kicked off his international career, Azam focused on giving his best on the cricketing field.
Talking about the mental approach of Azam, the cricketing pundits are of the view that he will go down as one of the fine batsmen Pakistan has had even produced. Similarly, his shots remind us of his talented cousin Umar Akmal, who has gone off the radar following his misbehaviour.
In conclusion, a player like Azam would be crucial for Pakistan. More often than not, Pakistan has faced a deficiency owing to the stability in the batting department. And many believe that Azam will be a man in crisis too look at, for Pakistan.