More you play longer format, more you understand its nuances, claims Babar Azam
Babar Azam has stated that 2019 was a great learning curve for him as far as understanding of his own game goes and added that the more you play longer format, the more you understand its nuances. Azam also added that his battle against Dale Steyn gave him great pleasure and confidence.
A very good limited-overs batsman, Babar Azam broke his game through the glass ceiling in 2019 to be recognised among the elite Test batsmen in the world. His innings at the Gabba and a solid 97 in Adelaide a couple of months ago were the proof of the growing understanding of his own game which further found adulation when he scored a home Test century in Karachi against Sri Lanka to establish his name in the legend.
“This year, I worked on rectifying the mistakes I made in the format and was able to overcome some of them. That helped me make some runs. The more you play the longer format, the more you understand its nuances and find your way. I rate the century against Australia as my best innings of the year in the Test format,” Azam was quoted as saying by PTI.
Not many batsmen in the history of cricket have dominated Dale Steyn as much as Babar Azam. David Warner, Kevin Pietersen, and Virender Sehwag found him sort of easy to take on, but Babar Azam made the South African suffer in his own den in the series where Pakistan toured South Africa. 10 boundaries in the 31 deliveries from Steyn in the first innings in Centurion and five more boundaries during his 72-ball stay in Cape Town was the sign of things to come as the Pakistani believed it was a great confidence-booster.
“My innings in South Africa against Dale Steyn gave me great pleasure and confidence that I can get into the Test match zone. I also learned how to convert 60s and 70s into 100s. The century in Australia gave me confidence that I can make big runs in the format,” he said.