Pakistan top-order batsman Babar Azam has got everyones eyes rolling after just one day of the ongoing 3-match Test series which kicked off on Wednesday. Babar Azam played 11 exquisite boundaries en route his unbeaten 100-ball 69 on Day 1 of the 1st Test match at Manchester’s Odd Trafford.
While, another former England captain Nasser Hussain demanded a brand new ‘Fab 5’ batting list with Babar Azam included in it, Michael Vaughan reckoned that Joe Root has been kicked out of the current ‘Fab 4’ list by the 25-year-old Lahore-born batsman and is no more the part of the elusive group which includes Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson as the other three batsmen.Michael Vaughan talked highly of the Pakistan number 4 who reflected class in each of his shots he played on Wednesday. Vaughan described the beauty of Babar Azam’s shots with the minutest of details and called him ‘a high-class player’.
Michael Vaughan also made a big prediction and said Babar Azam can replicate Steve Smith’s performance in England in 2019 Ashes and can torture the hosts like the Australian did with his 774 runs from 4 matches. Michael Vaughan opined that only one batsman from the opposition team has to stand against England while playing in their backyard.
“The big player Babar Azam strolled out there. Played and missed his first few deliveries and you think can he play the moving ball? Then all of a sudden he just starts to get his form, his balance, puts one down the ground. Played a beautiful back-foot punch of James Anderson.
“We saw that glorious cover drive that he got and then he danced down and whacked one over mid-wicket. You keep talking about the ‘Big Four’ and I keep hearing about this, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith, Joe Root, they kind of mention him in that top four but I am not too sure about that at this stage. I reckon Babar Azam has totally shifted Joe Root out of the way as we speak because of his record off late.
“He is averaging 65 in his last 18 months of Test cricket. No one is averaging higher than him. Babar Azam is at the top of the average tree and I can only see him improving and getting better and better. We saw Steve Smith do to England, one man has never ever done it in my time. He played out a series on his own to win Australia the Ashes. I have got a funny feeling if England don’t workout a way to bowl out Babar Azam we can see a similar thing happening in the course of the 3 Test matches. You only need in England to one of your batsmen to go big,” Michael Vaughan told Cricbuzz.
The former batsman added that there could be only one chink in the armour in Babar Azam’s batting. Vaughan pointed out that Babar failed to “greatly” execute a pull-shot on a Jofra Archer short delivery which was aimed into his armpits.
“There was juts one chink I saw today when Babar Azam could not play the pull shot well when Jofra Archer bowled a short delivery into his armpits. That is one thing England can target going forward into the series but he is a high class player,” Vaughan pointed out.
Notably, Babar Azam is just 31 runs away from his 6th Test century, which will also be his 4th in the last 5 Test innings.
