'We are on track in our preparations for the T20 World Cup' - Babar Azam after Pakistan's victory over South Africa

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is pleased with his team’s performance against South Africa and reckons that the preparations for the upcoming T20 World Cup in India are going in the right direction.

Pakistan has a streak of victories running since the start of this year when they defeated the visitors 2-0 in the Tests and followed that with a 2-1 win in the three-match T20I series.

While South Africa would have wanted to avenge those defeats when Pakistan visited them, they found things going quite the opposite way and lost both the ODI and T20I series. Babar Azam shone brightly in both the series and ended as the highest run-scorer in the T20Is, which included a record 122-run knock.

I think we are on track in our preparations for the T20 World Cup: Babar Azam

Speaking after Pakistan won the last T20I, Babar said “The series has helped us try out different combinations and I think we are on track in our preparations for the T20 World Cup, by which time we will have our squad ready for the big event.”

The only concern for the visitors in the series was the performance of their middle-order. Even in the last T20I, Pakistan suffered a batting collapse as they lost six wickets before eventually winning by three wickets. However, the skipper seemed satisfied with the team’s performance.

“Yes, it is frustrating that our middle and lower-order batsmen couldn’t perform to expectations, but cricket is a team game and not everyone can perform in every match. I think as a team we did well,” the 26-year-old said while addressing the issue after the match at Centurion.

“It is always difficult for those coming in after the top-order batsmen get out. I think we just needed one partnership to settle things, but that didn’t happen. It’s great to win both the white-ball series in South Africa and this will give us a lot of confidence for the coming matches,” he said.

According to recent reports, the Pakistan team is set to be granted visas by the Indian government for the upcoming prestigious tournament.