Babar Azam makes you feel slow as a bowler and it's not ideal for me: James Anderson

James Anderson, the English fast bowler has applauded the young Pakistani batsman, Babar Azam. Pakistan just completed the T20I series against the Brits and played a Test series before that. Anderson and Babar had a nice face-off in the rain-affected series. The veteran pacer dismissed the prolific batsman two out of the four times he lost his wicket.

Anderson is known as one of the most complete bowlers in English conditions. He has won several games for the Three Lions in his 17 years long Test career. The speedster recently became the first fast bowler to grab 600 scalps in Test cricket.

The pacer said that he loves to watch Babar Azam’s batting but doesn’t like to bowl against him. Appreciating the ample amount of time that the 25-year-old has while facing the bowlers, the seamer said that he makes him feel slow as a bowler.

“I do love watching Babar Azam. I prefer watching him from up here rather than bowling at him. He makes you feel slow as a bowler – and as a medium-pace bowler like myself, it’s not ideal,” Anderson was quoted as saying by BBC Test Match Special.

Babar Azam is the only batsman to feature in top 5 rankings of all the three formats

There has been a lot of talks in the cricket fraternity about how good Azam is at this young age. Also, the noise about adding him to the imaginary ‘Fab 4’ is also growing loud. The ‘Fab 4’ is an imaginary list of four best batsmen in the world. It includes Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, and Joe Root.

Nasser Hussain, the former England captain praised the young batsman last month during the mid-innings show on Sky Sports and said, “They talk about the Fab 4 but it’s the Fab 5 and Babar is in that.” The Pakistani batsman has grown a lot as a player in recent years.

He currently holds the first spot on ICC’s chart of batting rankings in the shortest format. He is on third and fifth in the ODI and Test rankings respectively and that makes him the only batsman to feature in the top 5 rankings of all the three formats. His performance at the highest level was acknowledged by the Board when he was made the captain of the limited-overs cricket last year.