Smiley face spotted on Babar Azam’s shoes during Pakistan versus New Zealand warm-up clash

The warm-up games for the ODI World Cup 2023 are well underway, and with Pakistan taking on New Zealand in Hyderabad, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam quickly stole the spotlight. 

The ace opener was seen wearing special shoes ahead of the clash against New Zealand. The speciality of his shoes was that there was a smiley face imprinted on them. The picture of which quickly stole the limelight and has gone viral all over social media.

An "Emoji" in the shoes of Babar Azam. 😉👀#WorldCup2023 #BabarAzam #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/sI5oMrmKmA

— Sportz Point (@sportz_point) September 29, 2023

It could be interesting to see whether the smiley is able to help Babar amass a huge run against New Zealand and propel Pakistan to a win in the warm-up clash ahead of the World Cup 2023. 

Pakistan aim to get positive start to World Cup

Pakistan will be coming into the World Cup and the warm-up games on the back of a disappointing run in the recently concluded Asia Cup 2023. After managing to reach the Super Four stage of the tournament, Pakistan failed to defeat Sri Lanka in a virtual semi-final as they succumbed to a defeat and were eliminated. 

However, the side will be hopeful that they will be able to put in an improved performance in the World Cup as the marquee event approaches. For the warm-up games, after facing New Zealand, Pakistan will be going up against Australia on October 3 before they kick off their World Cup campaign on October 6 against the Netherlands. 

Speaking of the first warm-up game, Pakistan won the toss against New Zealand and opted to bat first. However, they got off to a horrid start as New Zealand quickly dismissed the side’s two openers. 

Abdullah Shafique only scored 14 runs, whereas Imam-ul-Haq was sent packing for just one run. It could be interesting to see how the side comes back from the early setback.