Sharjah: Babar Azam, who steered Karachi Kings to victory, displayed huge potential as Pakistan’s future star on Friday night at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. He scored a timely unbeaten 47 to win the man of the match honours and has announced that he is ready for any form of the game.
Twenty-two-year-old Azam has already hit four One Day International centuries and a half century in Test cricket. Fresh from his century in Adelaide in the last one-day match of the series against Australia, he is proving to be a fine Twenty20 player too.
Asked how he was adapting to various formats, Azam replied: “I followed my coach’s [Dean Jones’] advice. My coach told me to play my game and that’s what I did. I always like to play positively.”
Azam hates to be affected by the pressures and loves to adapt to situations. “I needed to change my game for T20s but there isn’t much pressure. I would like to bat wherever the team management wants me to do. Happy to get a win in the tournament.”
Azam was also praised by his skipper and legendary batsman Kumar Sangakkara. “Babar is outstanding, he’s probably one of the most exciting young talents I’ve seen.”
Sangakkara also went on to praise his young 21-year-old leg spinner Usama Mir. “Usama, our leg spinner, is a fantastic bowler. Good turn and bounce. It’s a matter of attitude, once you get your career going, you have to work hard and keep improving.”
Talking about his team’s win, Sangakkara said: “I’m not really sure there was a lot of momentum to be gained from this game, but a win is a win and it should help our confidence.”
Islamabad United skipper Misbah-Ul Haq blamed his team’s defeat to the rain. “You can’t plan anything in a rain-affected game, and on this kind of pitch too. Still, they [Karachi] played better than us.”
Misbah said that a few more runs could have made all the difference. “We could have scored 15-20 runs more, especially against the spinners. Usama, the way he bowled, that was the difference. Difficult in these sort of conditions. You are planning for 20 overs then 18 overs then 13 overs. I still felt Karachi played better than us in all departments,” admitted Misbah.
Islamabad coach Dean Jones also was not too perturbed by the defeat. “The guys are terrific on the field. We are bowling really well. We have beaten the top two teams with all respect to Quetta and Peshawar. We will turn around.”
Brief scores: Karachi Kings bt Islamabad United by eight runs (D/L method). Islamabad United 90 for 8 in 13 overs (Dwayne Smith 29, Shane Watson 26, Imad Wasim 2 for 15, Usama Mir 2 for 10) Karachi Kings 75 for four in 9.4 overs (Babar Azam 47n.o, Mohammad Irfan 2 for 7).
