Cricket Cricket

'Kya baat hai bahut badhiya' - Fans react as former Australia batter Simon Katich ranks Abdullah Shafique above Babar Azam

Simon Katich lauded Abdullah Shafique for a brilliant start to his Test career and also predicted him to be a better player than former Pak skipper Babar Azam.

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Mathew K
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Babar Azam and Abdullah Shafique (File Photo: Twitter)

Babar Azam and Abdullah Shafique (File Photo: Twitter)

Former Australia batter Simon Katich ignited a new debate among the cricket fans after his recent statement while comparing the former Pakistan skipper Babar Azam with the young Test batter Abdullah Shafique. Katich feels that Shafique will emerge as a better player than Babar in the future. 

Notably, Pakistan are currently playing against Australia in the first Test of the three-match series in Australia. Abdullah Shafique came to open the innings for the visitors in the first innings after the Aussies got out at the score of 487 runs after winning the toss.

"He’s had a good start to his Test career." - Simon Katich about Abdullah Shafique

Meanwhile, Katich went on to predict Abdullah Shafique's future as a batter and compared him with his teammate and former skipper, Babar Azam. 

“He’s a good young player, he’s had a good start to his Test career. What I like about him the most is that he’s aggressive against spin. We have already seen him today hit Nathan Lyon straight over his head, so I like the look of him. I think he’s going to be a better player than Babar Azam,” said Katich on 7Cricket.

However, Abdullah Shafique couldn’t convert his start into a big knock and failed to utilize the opportunity; he fell prey to the veteran Aussie spinner Nathan Lyon at the individual score of 42 runs, with 6 fours. He also stitched a good partnership of 74 runs for the first wicket with his opening partner Imam-ul-Haq, who went unbeaten at the time of stumps, scoring 38 runs.

Speaking of the action of the Perth Test after the end of the day, Pakistan has scored 132 runs for the loss of 2 wickets, having Imam and Khurram Shahzad there in the middle at the individual score of 38 and 7 runs, respectively. Khurram came to bat at number 4 as a night-watchman after skipper Shan Masood got caught by Alex Carey off Mitchell Starc just 3 overs before the stumps. 

Here’s how fans reacted to Simon Katich’s statement on Abdullah Shafique and Babar Azam:

 

 

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