Pakistan’s young sensation Babar Azam is considered as one of the most gifted players of modern-day cricket. The right-handed batsman is often compared to Indian captain Virat Kohli just because he has been a consistent and exceptional performer for the Pakistan team.
Babar has played remarkable cricket for the past couple of years in the white-ball format, and therefore he averages above 50 in both ODIs and T20Is. Recently, the 25-year-old participated in an interview on Cricbuzz hosted by cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle.
During the chat, Harsha asked Babar to pick a combined XI featuring India-Pakistan players. The Lahore-born cricketer responded to the question and revealed his Indo-Pak T20 XI. Babar started the proceedings by naming openers in the form of Rohit Sharma and himself. Rohit is the second-highest run-scorer in T20Is, with as many as 2773 runs to his name in 108 games.
Babar then selected Kohli and Shoiab Malik to make a strong middle-order batting line-up. The Indian skipper has accumulated 2794 runs in the shortest format – highest by any batsman currently. Malik, on the other hand, is the leading run-getter for Pakistan with 2321 runs.
The lower-order responsibility was given to former India captain MS Dhoni and star all-rounder Hardik Pandya. In 98 games, Dhoni has amassed 1617 runs.
Among bowlers, Babar picked three seamers and two spinners in his team. He went with Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Amir and Jasprit Bumrah as his frontline pacers. In 50 games, Bumrah has taken 59 wickets with a brilliant economy of 6.66. Similarly, Afridi and Amir have bagged 16 and 59 scalps, respectively.
For the spinners, Babar chose Shadab Khan and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav. In 40 matches, Shadab has taken 48 wickets, while Kuldeep has 39 scalps to his name in 21 games.
Here is Babar Azam’s Indo-Pak T20 XI:
Rohit Sharma, Babar Azam, Virat Kohli, Shoaib Malik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Amir, Kuldeep Yadav.
