LAHORE – Azhar Ali has been appointed national cricket team captain forPakistan’s World Test Championship matches in the 2019-20 season whileBabar Azam has been named the captain of the no.1 ranked T20I side untilnext year’s ICC T20 World Cup Australia 2020.
The appointments were confirmed after Sarfaraz Ahmed was left out of bothformats due to the drop in his overall form during the past few series.
Seventh-ranked Pakistan would play fifth-ranked Australia in two Tests inBrisbane (November 21-25) and Adelaide (November 29- December 3(d/n))before hosting Sri Lanka and Bangladesh for two Tests apiece.
Pakistan team has also scheduled to play three T20Is each against Australia(November 3, 5 and 8) and Bangladesh before the curtain falls on theirinternational domestic season in early February 2020.
Azhar Ali has been a mainstay of Pakistan’s batting line-up since makinghis debut against Australia at Lord’s in 2010. The 34-year-old is regardedas Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan’s prodigy and has scored 5,669 runs with15 centuries and 31 half-centuries in 73 Tests.
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Azhar had an excellent tour of Australia last time when Pakistan was therein 2016-17 when he had scores of 5, 71, 205 not out, 43, 71 and 11. Hisother scores against Australia in England and the UAE are 16, 42, 30, 51,53, 30, 109, 100 not out, 18, 4, 15 and 64.
This means the 21st ranked batsman in the world has aggregated 938 runs innine Tests against Australia, his second-most after Sri Lanka (1156 runs in14 Tests).
In the ongoing four-day first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Azhar is thesecond most successful batsman with 388 runs in four matches as his sideCentral Punjab leads the field with two wins.
