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Pakistan were in for a surprise against co-hosts USA in their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign opener. Pakistan suffered a collapse in the powerplay overs and were reduced to 26/3 as USA bowlers were pin-point with their lengths and field placement. Skipper Babar Azam struggled to not just find boundaries but rotate the strike as well. He did not hit a single boundary till the last ball of the 10th over. He accelerated later and departed for a 43-ball 44. The knock left former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan disappointed. He felt that Babar should have done more on a track which was good for batting.
“On a fairly decent batting condition as a captain if you are playing 40+ ball inning with 100 strike rate. You aren’t helping your team cause,” Irfan wrote on his X account.
Babar scored just four runs from 14 balls in the powerplay overs as Pakistan had 30/3 on the board. While Shadab Khan attacked, he continued to struggle. He hit his first six in the 12th over. After two wickets in the 13th over, Babar was struggling. It was not until the 16th over his strike rate went over 100 with a six. In the same over, he was dismissed lbw by Jessy Singh. Pakistan were 125/6 with 25 balls left in the innings when he departed.
In the slog overs, Pakistan lost just one wicket of Iftikhar Ahmed. Shaheen Afridi's unbeaten 16-ball 23 and Iftikhar's 14-ball 18 helped Pakistan post a challenging total of 159/7 on the board.
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Babar’s strike rate has been under the scanner for a long time. Earlier, Pakistan team management pushed him to no.3 and opened the innings with Mohammad Rizwan and Saim Ayub. However, Ayub was dropped after he failed to score big and Babar returned as opener.
Babar climbs to top
Despite missing his half-century, Babar became the leading run-scorer in T20I cricket. He went past India's Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli on the list. He has 4,067 runs from 120 games at an average of 41.08 including three centuries and 36 half-centuries.
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