Babar Azam, who was reappointed as Pakistan captain in ODIs and T20Is, was asked to choose between his teammate Naseem Shah and India’s ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah to defend 10 runs in the last over of a match.
Shaheen Afridi's failure as Pakistan captain in New Zealand T20I series and for Lahore Qalandars in the PSL 2024 led to PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi to lose confidence in his abiliities. And the board went back to Babar Azam as captain in white-ball cricket.
Babar will lead Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2024. Pakistan had qualified for semi-finals of 2021 T20 World Cup and for the final of 2022 T20 World Cup under Babar’s captaincy.
Pakistan will enter the T20 World Cup as one of the favorites to win the title. Pakistan will begin their T20 World Cup preparations with a five-match T20I series against New Zealand from April 18.
Babar Azam recently appeared on a podcast where he was asked to pick one between Jasprit Bumrah or Naseem Shah as a bowler he would back to defend 10 runs in the last over.
"One over, T20 match, you have to win the match, you have two options to defend 10 runs, whom will you give the last over, Naseem Shah or Jasprit Bumrah?” the host asked.
Bumrah is one of the greatest T20 bowlers of all time, having won numerous matches for his sides in similar situations. However, Babar had no hesitation in selecting Naseem Shah over Jasprit Bumrah.
Without any hesitation, Babar replied, "Naseem Shah."
In 17 Tests, Naseem took 51 wickets, 32 in 14 ODIs and 15 dismissals in 19 T20Is. On the other hand, Bumrah has taken 159 wickets in 36 Tests, 149 in 89 ODIs and 74 dismissals in 62 T20Is.
Here is the video:
“Firstly, I felt so happy for Naseem [Shah] for the way he returned to cricket after injury, the way he recovered because as per my information, I knew it would take time [for him to recover completely], but he was determined to play the PSL.
The number of skills he has, you don’t get a talent like this very often in Pakistan. There are others too, like Shaheen [Afridi], he has his own class, he is experienced and Naseem is on Shaheen’s path [in terms of experience],” Babar Azam praised the Pakistan bowling attack.
