PSL 2020 | Think Babar Azam surprised a lot with his T20 cricket, reckons Faf du Plessis

Being an important member of the South African national team, Faf du Plessis has played against some of the most talented players from around the world. Owing to no international cricket at the moment, du Plessis is part of the Peshawar Zalmi squad, for the play-off stage of the Pakistan Super League. 

While his team went out in the first Eliminator, du Plessis had the first-hand experience of looking at the tournament’s leading run-scorer Babar Azam. The Proteas man reckoned that Babar Azam has surprised a lot with the way he goes about in the shortest format of the game. With a brilliant technique, the right-hander was always earmarked as one of the best batting talents to pop up from Pakistan but his technique was always restricted to the longer formats. 

“I think he surprised a lot of people with his T20 cricket. People would have originally boxed him as a guy that hasn’t got a lot of power but certainly of late his T20 game has been remarkable,” Faf du Plessis told Cricket Pakistan.

Not only that, there is a glaring similarity between Virat Kohli and Babar Azam, especially with both of them a great example of technically sound players. This season, playing for Karachi Kings, the right-hander has scored 410 runs, at an average of 51.25 and a strike-rate awfully similar to Kohli, at 123.49. Azam would be key for his side against the Lahore Qalandars, on Tuesday in the final of the tournament. 

“I do [see similarity between Kohli and Babar]. They are extremely high quality players. Babar, over the last year or so, has taken another step towards becoming one of the greats of the game so he has got an exciting future,” Faf du Plessis added.