Babar Azam brushes aside ‘selfish’ criticism

Pakistan top-order batsman Babar Azam has brushed aside the notion that he is selfish in his style of batting.

While talking to media in a press conference, after the conclusion of World Cup warm-up match against Afghanistan, Azam said that he always tries to play in accordance with the plan given to him by the team management.  

"I play according to the plan given to me by the team, I am not playing for myself, this isn't my team, this is Pakistan's team and I play for it. We were losing wickets and my job was to build partnerships," said Azam. "My game isn't to go out there and bat at a strike rate of 100-120, my job is to bat out the overs and build partnerships."

Afghanistan clinched a shock victory against Pakistan in Bristol on Friday, which once again raised question marks over Men in Green’s preparation heading into the 2019 World Cup.

 Speaking about team’s batting, Azam said: "When we started batting, the wicket wasn't easy to bat on and it was a little slow. When we lost some wickets, we wanted to build a partnership which I managed to do with Shoaib bhai but after that we were not able to build more partnerships.”

Azam, who scored 112 from 108 balls during the warm-up game, was looking forward to extend his good run of form with the bat.

"My form is quite good and I am looking to continue it. The England series was quite helpful and the conditions were good and hopefully they'll continue to be like that," he said.

The right-handed batsman was also hopeful that team will put up a good show in the upcoming matches.

"Going forward, we'll try to do our best in upcoming matches. We're lacking a little in bowling and we'll try to cover that and perform well in the next match," he said. "The morale of the team is also high."

Pakistan will play their second and final warm-up match, before the start of World Cup, against Bangladesh at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Sunday, May 26.