Pakistan is set to soon embark upon their campaign for their Asia Cup on Sunday against India.
Wasim Akram said that he believes Babar Azam’s men believe they can clean out their arch-rivals ‘day in, day out. They are quite confident after their victory against India in last year in the Twenty20 World Cup.
A long-running jinx that seemed to be have been cast upon the Pakistan cricket team was lifted after that victory in the United Arab Emirates right in the beginning of the tournament. Wasim believes that Pakistan would be able to be part of the Group A match solely on the basis of that win.
“The Pakistan team is on the rise for the past couple of years. They’ve been consistent, and I think the win against India, although that was a year ago during the World Cup, gave them a bit of confidence that they can compete with India day in, day out,” Wasim said on Tuesday.
Pakistan is set to start training for this match from Wednesday at the ICC Academy. The majority of the squad is expected to arrive from Netherlands on Tuesday morning after their most recent ODI Series victory. Pacer Muhammad Husnain is to replace Shaheen Shah Afridi due to the injury.
Wasim reminded the players of the top order as their strength rather than a weakness. He further added, “Since the start of last year’s T20 World Cup, Pakistan’s top three have scored 67.53% of all runs made by the team in T20Is. This has largely been down to Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Fakhar Zaman”.
“The only thing I’m worried about is the middle order. There is no experience apart from Iftikhar Ahmed coming in at No. 4, and then you’ll have probably Haider Ali, a young sensation who has not been consistent. Babar Azam and Rizwan are the key as far as the T20 format is concerned. I think in general they are confident, but it depends on how they feel or what sort of mindset they are in when they arrive before the India-Pakistan game because that game can make to break the Asia Cup for either side,” he added.
“It’s only natural,” Wasim said. “When we played, people compared Inzamam-ul-Haq with Rahul Dravid or Sachin Tendulkar. Before that, it was Javed Miandad versus Sunny Gavaskar. Gundappa Viswanath and Zaheer Abbas, so it is[comparison] only natural. Babar has been very consistent because he has the right technique.
He enjoys his batting, is still very hungry, physically fit, still young, and is captain across formats. He is learning and learning very quickly. As far as comparisons go, he is on the right track to be where Virat Kohli is. It is a bit too early to compare him to Kohli at this stage. But he is on track to be one of the modern greats.”
On the other hand, Shastri boosts Kohli according to whom Kohli needs just one big inning to get into form. “I haven’t spoken to him, but it’s not rocket science. Big players wake up in due course,” Shastri said.