‘Babar Azam Is A World Class Player’: Kane Williamson ‘Warns’ New Zealand Ahead Of T20I Series
New Delhi: New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson lavished praise on Babar Azam ahead of the T20I series which will start from January 12 and the first match will be played at Eden Park in Aukland in New Zealand.
Babar is currently going through a rough patch in his career as a batter who entered 2023 ODI World Cup as the World’s number 1 ODI batter and ended the campaign by scoring just 320 runs.
“He [Babar] is a world class player. Cricket comes with a full range of feeling and emotions and part of it is navigating each day and looking to improve. He is one of the best players in the world and I am sure he will be doing that and that doesn’t change overnight. We know he is a big threat,” Williamson stated.
In the recent three-match Test series against Australia former Pakistan skipper just scored 126 runs. There are reports that Babar will not be the opener in the upcoming T20I series as newly appointed skipper Shaheen Shah Afridi will look to experiment the batting order in against Blackcaps in the T20Is.
Williamson also said that Pakistan is one of the best teams in the World in all conditions.
“Pakistan is always a fantastic opportunity. They are consistently one of the best teams in the world and in all conditions, so to have them to have them here in our backyard and having another contest is great. We played a tri-series series prior to the last World Cup. They won that and they obviously went a long way in that competition as well and so we know how strong they are as a team,” Williamson added.
Squads
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt) (except game 3), Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Devon Conway (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Josh Clarkson (game 3 only), Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ben Sears (games 1 & 2), Lockie Ferguson (games 3, 4 & 5)
Pakistan: Shaheen Shah Afridi (capt), Aamer Jamal, Abbas Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Usama Mir, Zaman Khan