Rawalpindi
\nPakistan ODI captain Shaheen Shah Afridi expressed hope on Friday that Babar Azam, who had been recalled for the upcoming three-match series against Australia, would continue his PSL form.
\nIn the 11th HBL Pakistan Super League edition that concluded earlier this month, Babar finished as the highest run-getter for the season and also led his side, Peshawar Zalmi, to lifting the trophy. He also struck two spectacular centuries in the season against Quetta Gladiators and Islamabad United.
\nBabar\u2019s return to form in the PSL followed a disappointing T20 World Cup campaign by Pakistan, during which the former captain was seen struggling. Subsequently, he was not included in the squad for the away ODI series against Bangladesh in March.
\nAfter he was recalled for the Australia series, scheduled from May 30 to June 4 in Rawalpindi and Lahore, Shaheen said during a press conference on Sunday that Babar had been the \u201cbackbone\u201d of Pakistan\u2019s middle order.
\n\u201cWe hope that his form from PSL continues and he wins matches for Pakistan,\u201d the skipper added.
\nOn the inclusion of new players in the team for the series, he said selectors had been trying to giving young players a chance for the past two to three series so that \u201cwe have more opportunities\u201d while selecting the team for the World Cup.
\nHe was also asked for his opinion on Coach Mike Hesson\u2019s statements that some players were unable to \u201cgive their 100 per cent\u201d and efforts were needed to optimise their performance.
\nShaheen responded by saying everyone should work on improving their performance and the coach would have spoken to the players he was talking about.
\nSpeaking for himself, he said he \u201cdoes not note any player individually \u2026 I focus on the performance as a team. But the head coach sees things differently, he must have spoken to those players and they should improve\u201d.
\nIn response to a question about fast bowlers not being able to keep up the pace that the Pakistani side is known for, Shaheen said they were working on improving and getting back their pace.
\nHe also said that \u201call of us will try to win matches for the team. This is our duty, as well as our responsibility.\u201d
\nAsked about Muhammad Rizwan\u2019s exclusion from the team and whether the inclusion of Ghazi Ghori and Rohail Nazir meant the more experienced player would also not be selected for the World Cup, he said: \u201cNo, don\u2019t reach conclusions in haste. I and Babar were also dropped in the past \u2026 If Rizwan is not in the series, that doesn\u2019t mean that his cricket has ended.
\n\u201cYou always give opportunity to young players \u2026 Someone should get an opportunity if we want to constitute a team for the World Cup \u2026 But nobody can end anyone\u2019s career.\u201d
\nTwo years ago, Rizwan led Pakistan to their first ODI series win in Australia since 2002.
\nApart from him, Pakistan will also miss regular openers Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub, who both miss the series with injuries.
\nUnder-strength Australia and Pakistan meet in the first of three one-day internationals in Rawalpindi on Saturday, aiming to build strong combinations for next year\u2019s World Cup.
\nShaheen hoped his team would show improvement and make their 1,000 ODI memorable.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a special occasion of 1,000 match so we want to make it memorable,\u201d said Shaheen.
\nAustralia will play in the series without their regular skipper Pat Cummins along with his pace partners Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood and opener Travis Head \u2014 all rested to manage their workloads following their stints in India\u2019s T20 League.
\nMitchell Marsh, initially appointed captain for the tour, was also ruled out with an ankle injury, leaving Josh Inglis to lead the series with the last two matches in Lahore on June 2 and 4.
\nDespite being depleted, Inglis termed the Australian squad as talented enough to put up a good fight.
\n\u201cObviously, disappointing to lose Mitch and unfortunately we are missing some others but we have some exciting players in the squad,\u201d said Inglis on Friday.
\nAustralia will look to draft in 19-year-old batter Ollie Peake and pace allrounder Liam Scott while lanky pacer Billy Stanlake makes a return after a seven-year gap.
\nInglis said the Pakistan team will not be taken lightly.
\n\u201cPakistan is a seriously good cricket team and they are not to be taken lightly and we have to be on top of our game to come up against them,\u201d said the stand-in skipper.
\nPakistan is going through a heat wave in the summer and to minimise the effect of stifling weather, the matches will start as late as 4:30pm.
\nInglis admitted weather will be a challenge with players coming from winter in Australia.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been very hot and challenging, but thankfully it\u2019s a late start so it will be cool by the time we start,\u201d said Inglis, who has led Australia in one ODI two years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rawalpindi Pakistan ODI captain Shaheen Shah Afridi expressed hope on Friday that Babar Azam, who had been recalled for the upcoming three-match series against Australia, would continue his PSL form. In the 11th HBL Pakistan Super League edition that concluded earlier this month, Babar finished as the highest run-getter for the season and also led …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98324,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98305\/revisions\/98324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}