Pakistan T20I captain Babar Azam says team will miss Sarfaraz Ahmed a lot in Australia

Pakistan, ranked No.1 in the shortest format, lost to a second-string Sri Lanka side 0-3 at home that led to a huge uproar. Led by Misbah-ul-Haq, the new head coach who is also the chief selector, Pakistan decided to drop Sarfaraz Ahmed from captaincy both in Tests and T20Is and split it between Babar Azam (T20Is) and Azhar Ali (Tests). The wicketkeeper-batsman was even dropped from the Pakistan squads heading Down Under for both the T20I and Test series.

Babar, who had an ordinary T20I series against the Sri Lankans despite being the top-ranked batsman in the format, said on the eve of the Sydney match that the team will miss Sarfaraz “a lot” during the series. “Of course, we would miss him a lot,” the 25-year-old Babar, who is also one of the best batsmen of his side, said at a press conference in Sydney on Saturday.

“Sarfaraz’s services for Pakistan are immeasurable. He made the team number one [in the world] and I hope to build on this.”

Lack of experience not an issue for Babar Azam

Babar, however, dismissed the idea that lack of experience as a captain and the need to balance between batting and captaincy would be a problem for him.

“When I will be batting, I will only focus on piling up the runs but when I will be on the field, I will then step into my role as captain and lead the team,” Babar said. “I also have [some] experience as I was the captain back in 2012 for the U-19 team at the World Cup in Australia. I am familiar with the conditions.”

Also when asked whether Misbah would be the de factor captain because of the sea of experience, Babar said the former would not be playing the game on the ground.

On ways to tackle the in-form David Warner, Babar said the two Mohammad pacers in his team — Irfan and Amir — will work towards restricting the dashing southpaw who was not dismissed even once in the recent three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka and was adjudged the man of the series.

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