Babar Azam tells his favorites for T20 World Cup

DUBAI: Pakistani skipper Babar Azam is looking forward to watching the performance of his compatriot Hasan Ali and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson in the T20 World Cup which rolls into action on Sunday in Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In a virtual captains’ session released by the International Cricket Council (ICC), Babar said T20 World Cup is the biggest event of his career so far.

“It’s a big event for me, my team, and everyone participating in it. I am really looking forward to this event which brings exciting competitions for cricket fans across the world,” he said.

“Personally, I am looking forward to Hasan and Williamson performing in the event. I believe these two are doing well in their respective departments,” he added.

Speaking about the Pakistan team’s combination for the extravaganza, Babar said they made few changes following their domestic National T20 Cup.

“We have a quite balanced team with the likes of experienced and young blood. We brought in Shoaib Malik who has immense experience of playing ICC events. We included Fakhar Zaman who gave us a depth option in batting. Haider Ali is an exciting player to watch and I hope his inclusion will make our batting strong,” he explained.

“See, our couple international series were cancelled just before this event. We were highly dependent on that series from a preparation point of view. After that, we had left with only option to try the players in National T20 Cup. Unfortunately, some of our selected players didn’t perform well so we went for some changes,” he explained.

Pakistan vs India

The young skipper Babar is excited to face India in the heated contest at the T20 World Cup and want to start the event on a high note. “See, the match against India has always been a high-pressure contest. Everyone wants us to win against them. I hope we plan things strongly to beat India and start the tournament on a winning note,” he said.