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Babar Azam wary of new look Bangladesh

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam was reluctant to underestimate Bangladesh, stating that the hosts already had shown what they are capable of at their own den despite a catastrophic Twenty20 World Cup performance and absence of some senior players.

Citing Bangladesh’s series victory over Australia and New Zealand, the two finalists of the Twenty20 World Cup, Babar said at home soil Bangladesh can beat any team of the world and so Pakistan should guard against the complacency.

“Bangladesh are not an easy opponent especially in their home conditions and they have shown against New Zealand and Australia in recent past that what they are capable of,” Babar said here today as his side gears up for the first of three-match T20 International series against Bangladesh.

“They obviously are missing some players but who are here, they all played BPL and are capable of doing something very good. We are keen to build on the momentum that we got from the Twenty20 World Cup. At the same time, we would like to test our bench strength here and this is the reason that we have changed four players in our 12-players squad for the first game against Bangladesh.”

Bangladesh were heavily criticized for preparing an extremely slow and low pitch against Australia and New Zealand. But generally Bangladesh’s pitch tends to produce low scoring matches and Babar is aware of that.

From his past experience of playing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) in Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh, he also knew that the match won’t be as high scoring as they experienced in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“What I understood is that we won’t get a high scoring match like UAE here. We have to value our wickets and go after the bowlers once we get set in the crease. In the World Cup too, our plan was to keep wickets at hand and later accelerated the innings in the last seven or eight overs.”

“I had played BPL here four/five years ago. I knew the wicket here was slow and low. But we will stick to our plan.”

One bad game in the knockout phase in the World Cup cost Pakistan the final but they have been the most consistent team in this format over the last two years. Babar himself has been in form of his life and continued it to the World Cup too, scoring highest 303 runs with four half-centuries.

Babar said personally he would like to keep this form up.

“I am pretty much confident about my own form and will try to do better here too but I am always ready to learn and try to put some extra yard in each training session,” he said.

The Pakistan skipper also lauded Bangladesh’s people, saying that the support they got from fans here is excellent.

“Bangladesh is a cricket loving nation and we have seen their support for Pakistan cricket. They regularly watch our training sessions from their rooftops. They are standing by the road side to wave at our team bus.”

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