Mohammad Rizwan confirms Babar Azam's batting position for Champions Trophy: ‘He is satisfied with…’

Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan on Tuesday confirmed that right-hander Babar Azam will continue opening the batting in the upcoming Champions Trophy. The eight-team tournament begins on Wednesday with the opening match between hosts Pakistan and New Zealand in Karachi. Babar recently opened the batting for Pakistan in the Tri-Series against New Zealand and South Africa. However, he failed to get going with the bat. Mohammad Rizwan has confirmed Babar Azam's batting position for the upcoming Champions Trophy. (AFP)

Babar Azam registered scores of 10, 23 and 29 in the Tri-Series. Runs have been hard to come by for the right-hander, and Babar has been stuck on 19 ODI centuries since August 2023.

Babar Azam's last ODI ton came in August 2023, when he passed the three-figure mark against Nepal. Rizwan confirmed that Babar is comfortable with his new role and will continue opening the batting in the Champions Trophy, which is returning after almost eight years.

"We have options, but if you look at the combination, Babar will continue opening the batting for us in the Champions Trophy. He is satisfied with his batting position. We want to bring genuine openers, but it is our home conditions, we want a left-right combination. Hence, we decided to have Babar Azam as an opener as he is technically sound batter," Rizwan told reporters ahead of the Champions Trophy opener against New Zealand.

With this confirmation, Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman are set to open the innings for Pakistan in the Champions Trophy. At the pre-match press conference, Rizwan also said that it is not just about Babar and him, rather he wants to see a complete team effort in the tournament.

"It is not just about me and Babar Azam. Everyone is training very hard and working hard to win the Champions Trophy. We are just controlling the controlables," said Rizwan.

Mohammad Rizwan also confirmed that pacer Haris Rauf is fit and is expected to play the match against New Zealand on Wednesday.

'We suffered for 10 years'

An ICC event is returning to Pakistan after 29 years. Ever since the Lahore terror attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009, no team visited Pakistan for even a bilateral series for 10 years. Slowly and gradually, cricket returned to the country, and now Pakistan is finally hosting an ICC event.

However, India will not visit Pakistan after the government did not grant permission. Rohit Sharma and co will play their matches in Dubai.

“Like if you see right now, our team, our procedures, like I said we suffered for 10 years, no new team came to Pakistan, but even then we gave good results to the nation. So, no one should doubt that we don’t have any good players, we don’t have the ability, we don’t have facilities,” said Rizwan.

“But yes, on the day maybe we play a little out of form, we are not playing as per our ability, because of which other teams win against us, but we are trying our best so that we fulfil that and the result favours our Pakistan team,” he added.

Rizwan also rounded off the interaction by expressing his desire to see his lineup play as a unit and put in a complete team performance.

“Generally, when we win – as a captain I am the most happy when the entire team is involved in winning a match. But since the past few years our individual performances have been such that we make the team win,” said Rizwan.

“Now the focus is – like I said in the beginning, all 15 of my players are like the captains of the team. I come in front of you for the toss, but everyone is as important. When we come on to the ground, we are all one,” he added.

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