Babar Azam - Michael Vaughan - sportstiger

Picture Credit: Twitter

Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan has recently called Pakistan batter Babar Azam "the best all round batter in world cricket across all three formats". The 27-year-old is ranked number one in ICC rankings in both ODIs and T20Is while being top ten in the Test format. Azam scored an incredible 196-run century in the second innings of the second Test against Australia.

Pakistan was chasing a steep target of 505 runs where Azam batted with great vigour alongside wicket-keeper batter Mohammad Rizwan who scored a century and Abdullah Shafique - who had put up 96 runs. The Men in Green ended the fifth day at 443 as the Test series ended in a draw. Vaughan tweeted, “Without question I think @babarazam258 is the best all-round Batter in the World right now .. Brilliant across all the formats .. #PAKvAUS.”

Check out Michael Vaughan’s tweet here:

https://twitter.com/MichaelVaughan/status/1504088162276155394

After the match, Babar Azam talked about how the team stuck to their plan to ‘bat session-by-session and build partnerships’. “The plan was to bat session-by-session and build partnerships. It was a team effort, as others (Shafique and Rizwan) chipped in with useful contributions too. We took the onus and the main focus was to build partnerships right throughout the day”, quoted Babar Azam.

“Rizwan was outstanding as he saved the Test for us eventually. We wanted to continue to bat in the same way (after the tea break) and we tried to be positive and play our shots. The team needed this knock, so I tried to bat for as long as I could”, he added.

Mohammed Rizwan also praised Azam as the duo put up a massive partnership of 115 runs. He called Babar as the top player in the world as he said, “Definitely there was pressure towards the closing stages, but I tried to keep my calm. What can I say, Babar is the number 1 player in the world, no doubt about that. Everyone knows it. Batting for two days to save a Test match is not that easy, that too against a quality side like Australia.”