Babar Azam, the Pakistan skipper, recently dethroned Virat Kohli from the no. 1 spot in ICC ODI rankings. The 26-year-old had a great series against South Africa, where Pakistan defeated the latter in their backyard. Thus, Pakistan became the first Asian team to win a series twice in South Africa. Azam slammed 196 runs in 4 T20Is and won the Player of the Series award.
Meanwhile, the former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar took to Twitter to applaud Azam for his ingenious shot selection. Akhtar posted a video of Azam to reveal the reason behind the street smartness of Pakistani cricketers.
The video was divided into two halves. In one half, Azam can be seen playing indoor cricket, whereas the other half was a clip from the 3rd T20I of the Pakistan tour of South Africa when Azam smacked 122 runs off 59 balls at the SuperSport Park in Centurion.
While playing indoors, Azam can be seen taking the bat near his feet and guiding the ball behind the wicket-keeper. In the parallel clip of the match, the Lahore-born successfully attempted a similar shot to a yorker directed to his stumps. He took the bat near his feet and cheekily guided the ball towards the third man.
Captioning the video, Akhtar wrote that the street smartness of Pakistani cricketers comes from playing gully, indoor and backyard cricket. These forms of cricket are the hub of innovation.
“When we say Pakistani cricketers are street smart. This is where the street smartness comes from. Indoor cricket, gully cricket, backyard cricket. This teaches us innovation! When we say Pakistani cricketers are street smart. This is where the street smartness comes from. Indoor cricket, gully cricket, backyard cricket. This teaches us innovation!” Akhtar wrote.
When we say Pakistani cricketers are street smart. This is where the street smartness comes from. Indoor cricket, gully cricket, backyard cricket. This teaches us innovation! #cricket #pakistan #streetsmart pic.twitter.com/r25qRq6i7J
— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) April 18, 2021
