'He would go for INR 15-20 crore'- Shoaib Akhtar on Babar Azam playing in IPL

Shoaib Akhtar has opined that Pakistan skipper Babar Azam will fetch around INR 15-20 crore in the Indian Premier League (IPL), if he features in biggest cricketing league of the world. To note, Babar is ranked number one in both ICC ODI and T20I batting rankings.

The 15th edition of IPL started on March 26 (Saturday) with players from all prominent countries taking part in the tournament apart from Pakistan cricketers. It is to be noted that Pakistani players have only featured in the inaugural season of IPL 2008 with a total number of 11 of their players participating in the league.

It would be great to see Babar Azam and Virat Kohli opening the innings together: Shoaib Akhtar

Akhtar also expressed his views on how big it would be to see Babar Azam play with Virat Kohli in the IPL. “It would be great to see Babar Azam and Virat Kohli opening the innings together in the IPL one day. What an exciting moment that would be. In the auction, Babar would go for 15-20 crore INR and could be the most expensive Pakistan player,” Akhtar said while speaking to Sportskeeda.

Talking about Babar Azam’s numbers in T20I format, he has played a total of 73 matches amassing 2620 runs with an excellent average of 45.17. The right-handed batter plays with a strike rate of almost 130 and has stroked 25 fifties and one hundred as well. To note, Pakistan will take on Australia in three-match ODI series starting from March 29 (Tuesday) after losing the preceding Test series by a margin of 1-0 at home.

Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will take on Rajasthan Royals in match five of IPL to be played on March 29 (Tuesday). The group stage match will be played at Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA), Pune. It is going to be cracker of a contest with several key players including Kane Willamson, Nicholas Pooran, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson and other star players taking part in the contest.