Babar Azam proved two famous individuals completely wrong in 2020

Babar Azam is covering the journey of becoming a part of the elite group of the batting marvels cricket has produced in history.

The One Day and T20 international captain of Pakistan, who is aged just 24, is ranked among the top five batsmen across all formats of the game. 

Babar Azam’s stats of the fair amount of runs with phenomenal batting average have already left behind some of the fine batsmen.

Furthermore, the flair in his aesthetic batting strokes has earned him a tremendous reputation among the cricket pundits.

Babar scored consistently on every kind of batting track, faced renowned bowlers with remarkable steadiness on the crease and demonstrated resistance like every batsman of high status would show, but the only problem pundits figured out in his batting was his struggle in slogging the ball.

Must Read: Babar Azam praised two Pakistani cricketers for their tremendous help in his batting

Babar Azam’s ODI career and T20 knocks saw many occasions where the batsman built his innings magnificently but failed it to end on a high note with a healthy strike-rate.

However, in the late part of his ongoing career, Babar stood up on the toughest occasions and started proving his critics wrong when he unleashed the true version of himself.

The turning point of Babar Azam’s career

Babar Azam’s batting performance against New Zealand in the Cricket World Cup 2019, which was a blend of a spectacular build-up of innings, brilliant composition on the crease and safe blistering hits, became the turning point of his career and boosted his rank as a  batsman on a different level.

Babar also rose through the ranks to became the number one T20 International batsman and proved his critics who assumed his approach as the shortest format batsman wrong. And among those critics, there are surprisingly a few famous names.

Babar Azam proved these famous cricketing individuals wrong 

1. Shahid Afridi

One of the finest Pakistan cricket all-rounders Shahid Afridi, who has represented Pakistan in more than 500 international games, assumed at the start that Babar Azam will fail in Twenty-20 Cricket and would only be suitable for One Day and Test cricket format. 

Afridi is impressed heavily by the hard work and shots of Babar. The former One Day batsman also appreciated the way Babar Azam has revamped himself as a modern-era cricket batsman.

“I thought Babar Azam would survive in Tests and ODIs but not in T20 Internationals. This was my opinion. But the way that guy has polished and groomed himself. The shots he plays. It depends on the goals you set yourself. It is always hard work. I can’t just keep thinking that I want to be like AB de Villiers or Virat Kohli. If you don’t work hard enough it can never be possible. In order to achieve any goal you always have to work hard,” (quote from Daily Times) Shahid Afridi praised Babar Azam.

Babar has completely proved the earlier assumptions of Shahid Afridi wrong by becoming the best in the business in T20 International cricket.

2. Harsha Bhogle

The Indian cricket analyst and cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle discussed Babar Azam’s T20 career early stage and made critical remarks on the strike-rate Babar carried at the start.

Harsha does not seem impressed with the early version of Babar Azam as a T20 batsman.

“For the major part of his first two or three years, Azam had a batting average of 50 or 55 but a strike rate of 120. If you are playing with a strike rate of 110 or 115 in T20 cricket, the longer you bat, the more you are ensuring your team’s defeat,” (quote from Geo Super) said the renowned analyst Bhogle.

According to the analysis of Harsha, the low strike-rates and healthy batting average at the same time dent the team’s chances of winning the game in T20 cricket. 

He emphasized the fact of the great average, which is immensely useful in formats like One Day and Test Cricket, becoming a burden in T20 cricket.

“Suddenly the batting average is running contrary to what batting average does in any other form of cricket.” (quote from Geo Super) said Harsha.

Babar Azam, taking the top spot of the T20 international rankings, improving his strike-rate significantly (took it to 128.13) and showing the pure version of the modern-era batsman he has in himself, has been an incredible story of an emerging star defeating all the odds to own the show. 

And what thing is better than proving your critics wrong by your actions?

Conclusion:

If anyone desires to see the demonstration of a quote “Action speaks louder than words”, have a check at Babar Azam’s progress in his career.

Being majorly out from retaliating against social media criticism and focusing on his weaknesses to turn his critics to his fans, we must learn the art of focus and dedication from the Babar Azam’s story of redemption.

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