'Will try different combinations' - Babar Azam keen to give chances to youngsters on West Indies tour

Pakistan is set to play their first T20I match against West Indies on Wednesday (28 July). The team will look to make amends after their dismal performance against the preceding England series. On the eve of the four-match T20I series, Babar Azam spoke about trying out different combinations to provide opportunities to the fringe players.

With the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup only three months away, Azam and the management are keen to zero in on the core group of players for the global event, set to be held in the UAE. Only two or three players stood up to the task during the six-white ball matches against England. There was constant pressure on skipper Azam and in-form wicketkeeper-batter Mohammed Rizwan to help the team post a good total.

With a fresh series against West Indies, Azam and the management are hoping to provide chances to the likes of Azam Khan, Sohaib Maqsood and Mohammad Hasnain, which they failed to do during the England series.

“The players in the side have performed in domestic and PSL matches. Keeping the World Cup in mind we will be trying different combinations. We will also test our pinch-hitting. We have to trust our middle-order batsmen. We have a good track record against West Indies. We will try to play fearless cricket,” said Azam in the pre-match conference.

Babar Azam feels his side has worked on the fielding department

The 26-year-old also spoke about how his side needs to improve on the fielding front. Generally, considered a poor fielding side, Azam said Pakistan has put in the efforts in the field in the build-up to the series. 

“We did not get a lot of chances to try different combinations during the series against England. We will now try different combinations. We will try to learn from our mistakes. We will give confidence to our players. We have also worked on our fielding. Hopefully, we will see better results,” said Babar Azam. 

The series between West Indies and Pakistan originally comprised of five T20Is but had to be made of four matches due to the delay in completion of the West indies-Australia series on account of a positive case of COVID-19.