Babar Azam has revealed that the shift down from opening to No.3 in T20Is was for the team’s cause and he personally wasn’t satisfied with the role.

Earlier this year, during the five-match T20I series against New Zealand, Babar Azam was asked to bat at No.3 for Pakistan as they tried to split the tried and tested opening combination of him and Mohammad Rizwan.

From the five games, Babar scored 213 runs at 42.6 with a strike rate of 142. However, he is back opening for Peshawar Zalmi in PSL 2024, and has been leading the runs charts this season.

With 498 runs from nine games, Babar is the only batter to have scored more than 375 runs so far. After last night’s (March 11) match against Karachi Kings, which Peshawar won by two runs, Babar was asked about there being added pressure on him now that he is back opening.

“As an opener, there’s no pressure of any sort of me, neither do I take any,” responded Babar. “The [national] team was demanding it [shifting down to No.3]. Whatever I did, I did it for Pakistan. If you ask me individually, I wasn’t satisfied playing one-down for Pakistan. But I did it for Pakistan”.

As an opener in PSL 2024, Babar has scored five half-centuries and one hundred, batting at a strike rate of 149. For Pakistan, his record as an opener reads 2,077 runs at 41.1 with 24 fifties and three hundreds. At No.3, his average rises to 47.5 from 24 knocks.

Babar also spoke on young talents coming through the PSL and the need to streamline their development properly instead of rushing them into the international setup.

“You first have to identify which youngsters can perform well for Pakistan in the future,” he said. “But that is not my job. It’s the coaches and PCB’s job to identify players and get them into the NCA to work on their fitness and skills. What we do is we straightaway bring these players into the international level, which is why they struggle.

“Because there’s a lot of difference between international and other levels of cricket in terms of handling pressure. And that requires experience. The more you make them play, they better they will develop. Sometimes there are outstanding talents who make you think that they will dominate straight away. Those are different [kinds of] players.”

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