Watch: Babar Azam showed off his spin bowling in the nets during Pakistan’s warm ups for their impending ODI series against Afghanistan, grinning after he bowled Faheem Ashraf.

Pakistan are warming up for the three-match series, set to begin tomorrow (August 22), in neutral territory in Sri Lanka. Babar has seemingly been getting some bowling practice in during net sessions. He sent one down to Faheem Ashraf, who looked to slog it into the side netting, but missed completely. The ball canonned into the top of his middle and off stumps.

Babar turned back towards him with a broad grin on his face, as Ashraf swung his arm behind him looking frustrated with himself.

Babar has never bowled in limited-overs international cricket, but has taken two wickets in Test matches. He bowled three overs against Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2021 and dismissed Mehidy Hasan Miraz lbw. His second Test wicket came only a couple of months later when he bowled Alex Carey seven runs short of a century in Karachi.

While his spells in international cricket have been kept to a minimum, he has a pretty decent record as a part-timer in domestic and franchise cricket. His List A stats are 12 wickets at an economy rate of 5.26, and he can boast seven first-class wickets from 27 overs.

The ODI series against Afghanistan will precede the Asia Cup, which is set to begin next week. Pakistan’s first game of the tournament, which will be hosted in Pakistan, is against Nepal on August 30.

Watch: Babar Azam bowls Faheem Ashraf in net practice below

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