Muhammad Babur
Lahore
Pakistan and England will lock horns in the first of 3 T20Is match series at Manchester today .Both the team has exciting players to watch which includes world’s No.1batsman in T20 captain Babar Azam and exciting young stroke maker Haider Ali from Pakistan while England look towards captain Eion Morgan, Chris Jordan and Tom Curran to shine in the series. England won the test series 1-0 against Pakistan and it’s time for Pakistan to settle the score.
Former test cricketer Mohammad Khalil termed Pakistan as favorite against England. He said T20 cricket is very popular in Pakistan and most of its players selected on the performance of shorter format. Former Holland international Asim Khan Lucky was also hopeful of a good show from Pakistan team in T20 series.
He said Babur Azam will be the key man in the series for Pakistan if he clicks and give good start to the team they can cause upset in the series. Pakistan team is at number 4 while England is at number 2 spot in ICC ranking. There were no surprises when Misbah-ul-Haq, the head coach and chief selector of the Pakistan men’s national cricket team, shortlisted Haider Ali for the three T20Is against England, which begin later this week at Old Trafford, Manchester. The 19-year-old batsman made headlines over the course of the 2019-20 season on the back of his dazzling stroke play and impressive knocks across formats, including the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2020.
Younis Khan, Pakistan’s most prolific Test batsman who is in England with the team as the batting coach, praised Haider’s work ethic ‘I believe he is an upcoming star of Pakistan and he will perform whenever he gets a chance. He is strong and his fitness is improving day-by-day. He has a bright future and the ability to play all formats for Pakistan.”Haider comes into the side after a prolific 2019-20 season in which he made 645 first-class runs at 49.62 and amassed 239 runs at a staggering strike rate of 158.27 in the HBL Pakistan Super League 2020 to finish as the joint second-highest run-getter for his team (Peshawar Zalmi) along with veteran Shoaib Malik.
His 14 sixes were the most by any Zalmi batsman in the fifth edition of the league, which was played in Pakistan. Haider featured in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup under another promising youngster Rohail Nazir earlier this year in which he earned praises from the game’s greats for his scintillating strokes. He scored a fighting half-century in a semi-final against India.
