Sports Dask
Manchester: Former England captain Michael Vaughan thinks that Pakistan’s best batsman Babar Azam has moved England captain Joe Root out of batting’s ‘Fab Four’.
While analyzing Day one of Pakistan-England’s first Test on Cricbuzz, Vaughan praised Babar for his brilliant batting record.
“I keep hearing this ‘Big Four’ which include, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith and Joe Root. Not too sure about Root at this stage because I think Babar has shifted Root out because of his record of late, averaging above 65 in the last 18 months in Test cricket and no one is averaging higher than him. I can only see him improving and getting better and better,” he said.
Vaughan believes that England can target Babar with the short ball or else he might go on to score runs like Austalia’s Steve Smith, who piled 774 runs at an average of 110.57 in four Tests, last year during the Ashes.
“We saw Steve Smith did to England, what one man has never even done in my time, which was to win Australia the Ashes on his own,” he said. “I have got a feeling that if England don’t work away at bowling to Babar Azam we could see a similar thing happening over the course of the three-Test matches,” he added.
Vaughan also praised Pakistan’s support staff led by head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and is looked confident this summer.
“I have to say that they look a professional outfit, I have been watching them in the warm-ups. You just see the way that head coach Misbah is communicating, you have got Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmed, they have a quality background team and a young fit athletic team. They look the real deal Pakistan,” he maintained.
