'Crisis man' Fawad Alam sheds light on his stellar batting form

Pakistan’s ‘crisis man’ Fawad Alam, in an interview with Cricket Pakistan, shed light on his stellar recent batting form that has seen him score five centuries in five different countries.

The 35-year-old credited his experience playing in domestic cricket as the key to his pressure handling skills.

“When you play first-class or domestic cricket for a long time, then you encounter many pressure situations. In domestic cricket, wickets usually fall early, and a batsman has to bat in a pressure situation. That is why you don’t panic [if you have that experience]. A player needs to handle any situation whether early wickets have fallen or not. A player has to avail these chances to prove that they are getting better. I try to fight it out and deliver regardless of the situation or the conditions,” Alam said.

“I am really grateful to Allah [for my recent performances]. I always try to perform for my country. I always try to give performances that benefit the team. I hope I can keep performing the way I am currently. Scoring five centuries in five different countries is a thing of honour for me. As a player you want to perform to the best of your abilities for your country. I will try to deliver and perform wherever I can for my country in the future as well,” he added.

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The prolific Test batsman praised skipper Babar Azam, stating that he learned a lot while batting with a player who sits atop the world rankings. The duo shared a 158-run partnership for the fourth wicket, after losing three wickets for just two runs on the board, in the first innings of the recently concluded second Test against West Indies, which was instrumental in leading Pakistan to a series-levelling victory.

“Babar [Azam] is our world number one batsman. We all know his class in all three formats. The partnership between me and Babar changed the match and the team really needed it at that time. It brought us back into the match and then we went on to win the Test. I don’t think there was a big partnership throughout the two Tests,” he said.

“When you are batting with the number one batsman in the world, you get to learn a lot. We knew that if we kept standing in the middle we will get runs and that there will be a time when run-scoring will become easy. But you have to fight it out to get to that stage. Me and Babar were talking about staying at the crease and capitalizing when the time was right,” he concluded.