(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) How good is Babar Azam? Well, numbers don't lie and Azam's numbers in one-day cricket are so impressive that you begin to wonder if Pakistan have unearthed their next batting superstar.
For someone who has played only 32 matches, Azam's ability to get the big ones is quite incredible. His match-winning 103 (131 balls, five fours) against Sri Lanka in the first match of the five-game ODI series against Sri Lanka was his sixth century in one-day cricket.
It wasn't the most fluent innings. Of course, the 22-year-old batsman was coming off a poor Test series with the bat and showed the mental strength required to regain his touch with a quality innings.
It's the kind of innings Sri Lankan coach Nic Pothas would have hoped to see from his own batsmen who buckled under the pressure of chasing a target as big as 293.
"He is a quality player. I am more impressed by his mental strength, you know, he had a very tough Test series and so it's very impressive to come in and get a hundred and play really well. Yes, he is obviously quite a strong young player," the Lankan coach said after his team's 83-run defeat to Pakistan in the first one-dayer in Dubai.
Azam shared 139 runs for the fourth wicket with the veteran Shoaib Malik whose 61-ball 81 earned him the man-of-the-match award.
"It has to be said that we dropped him on 40. That's the nature of the game. The momentum does tend to go against you and the luck does tend to go against you. But that's life. He played a very good innings and it was his innings that allowed Shoaib (Malik) to play his innings. I know Shoaib is man-of-the-match but he was allowed to play that way because of the maturity of a very good young batsman."
Later, Malik couldn't stop smiling when he was asked if his young batting partner was the next big thing in Pakistan cricket.
"Yes, he has a great future. But personally I would like to see him score runs in Test cricket also. He has been working hard, he is our great hope," Malik said.
"The way he is going in his career I would say that he is an exceptional talent and he is improving every day. And I think the cricket board, the selection committee and even the team management should keep backing him. I think we can see Pakistan is on the verge of having a great cricketer."
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