"You almost feel it's unfair"- Naseem Shah hails Babar Azam's ability to hit good deliveries for boundaries

Pakistan speedster Naseem Shah had high praise for the way his teammate and former captain Babar Azam batted and opened up on some of his experiences while bowling to the star batter.

Shah opined that Azam's ability to hit even the good deliveries from bowlers to the fence makes the latter a high quality batter.

Speaking in an interview with CricWick, Naseem Shah said about Babar Azam:

"While Babar will definitely hit your bad ball for a boundary, even with a good delivery, you will hardly even feel that he would be dismissed easily. You have to be disciplined while bowling to him because he hits your good ball for a boundary in such a way that you almost feel it's unfair."

Shah recalled a recent face-off against Babar Azam during PSL 2024, where the speedster bowled a proper inswinging yorker only to see the star batter place it towards the third man region for a boundary. He claimed that he was taken aback by just how well Babar timed the ball.

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Naseem Shah on missing out on 2023 ODI World Cup

Naseem Shah's absence was arguably one of the biggest reasons why Pakistan couldn't get past the league stage of the 2023 World Cup in India. The speedster suffered from a major shoulder injury during the Asia Cup 2023 and couldn't recover in time for the World Cup.

On missing the all important World Cup event, Shah stated:

"It was very difficult for me to watch the matches on TV, when you know that you belong on the ground with the rest of the team. I hardly saw any matches because I just could not bear watching them. My hand was in a sling after surgery and I used to randomly wake up at night thinking that the injury has healed."

Pakistan will be delighted to see Naseem Shah back in action in PSL 2024 after a long lay-off. He has picked eight wickets from six matches for Islamabad United so far and Pakistan will hope he is in great shape going into the T20 World Cup in June later this year.