Waqar Younis, a veteran of Pakistan, believes that his former team has every chance to win the ICC T20 World Cup this year.
As a result of their recent success in the shortest format of cricket, the Asian nation is now ranked third on the ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings and will travel to Australia with confidence later this year.
Pakistan reached the semi-finals of the 2021 Twenty20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates and have only lost one 20-over match since losing to Australia in November of the previous year.
Waqar believes that the presence of the top two batsmen in Twenty20 cricket – skipper Babar Azam and seasoned right-hander Mohammad Rizwan – bodes well for Pakistan’s performance in this year’s competition.
Waqar recently told ICC Digital in Melbourne, “We stand a really good chance of doing well at this World Cup,”
“The pitches in Australia are generally very good batting pitches and Pakistan do have good batters who can really play well in these conditions.
“Babar is definitely going to be the key batter at the top of the order.
“I think he (Babar) will have the impact that he has always had and then of course Rizwan is playing very well and the bowling attack they have got it one of the best in the world.”
According to Waqar, Shaheen Afridi’s supporting cast is grossly undervalued.
Previously, the right-handed bowler Haris Rauf performed admirably in Australia’s domestic Big Bash League, while the spinners Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz have also thrived in recent years.
In the past year or two, we have utilised six or seven fast bowlers, and they have all performed exceptionally well, Waqar noted.
“I feel that Haris Rauf and Shaheen (Afridi) will be pivotal, but let’s not forget Hasan Ali either as he has been bowling very decent.
“Pakistan’s fast bowling attack is very good and they can mix it up with Shadab and Nawaz as they are good spinners also.”
In the great history of Pakistani cricket, only Wasim Akram has more Test and ODI scalps than the 50-year-old Waqar.
During his 14-year international career, the legendary spinner shared the field with several talented batsmen, like as Younis Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, and Javed Miandad.
Waqar indicated that comparisons should be postponed till the end of the current captain’s career, despite the fact that many experts believe Babar to be on par with or even superior to a number of these Pakistani batting heroes.
“Babar Azam in modern day cricket looks a million dollars and he is definitely as good as all the big names,” Waqar said.
“But all those greats have their own strengths and their own class and all of them played in different eras and we should not forget that.
“Babar is still very young and has plenty of cricket ahead of him and once he has retired you can perhaps sit down and start comparing him with others.”
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