Babar Azam eager to score his first T20I century against England

Pakistan Twenty20 International (T20I) captain Babar Azam has made his intentions clear as he aims to score his first century in the shortest format in the three-match series against England, starting from Friday at Old Trafford, Manchester.

While talking to reporters ahead of the series, the Pakistan T20I captain was disappointed to not score big in the recently-concluded Test series, which the hosts won by 1-0.

“I always try to play as well as I can. It is one of my goals to score a century in T20Is and to be honest, my aim is to score one in this series,” said Babar.

“It’s disappointing that I couldn’t convert my starts into big scores, but I will learn from these mistakes. I have analysed those in order to get better in the forthcoming series,” he added.

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Pakistan might opt to promote all-rounder Shadab Khan up the batting-order and will consider handing a T20I debut to rookie batsman Haider Ali.

 “Shadab showed great form with the bat in PSL. We will plan and try to utilize him up the order according to the match situation,” said Babar. “Haider is also a great talent and an outstanding player. We have tried to involve him in this group. He is playing well in the nets and also performed well in the practice matches.”

Babar refrained from revealing who will keep the wickets for Pakistan in the upcoming series.

"[Mohammad] Rizwan & Sarfaraz [Ahmed] are both talented wicketkeeper-batsmen. Rizwan is in great form, while Sarfaraz has wealth of experience. It will be a difficult decision for the management to choose between the two. Whoever will be better for team combination, will be in the playing XI against England in the T20Is," he said.