Former Pakistan skipper Babar Azam was near tears after his team lost to Afghanistan in the league stages of the 2023 ODI World Cup, Rahmanullah Gurbaz revealed on Thursday. After the victory, Gurbaz met Babar and was presented a bat by the former Pakistani captain, as a souvenir. But all said and done, Babar wasn’t in the best frame of mind, when the exchange happened.
“That moment I will never forget about Babar. We beat Pakistan, and then I asked for his bat. Once he brought the bat, he was so disappointed, and I can feel as a player. I can feel that, you know, when you lost the game and then this, especially in this kind of situation. He was under so much pressure,” Rahmanullah Gurbaz said in a video released by social media influencer Momin Saqib.
“Trust me, I was trying not to say this in front of the camera, but I want to say that he was about to cry. He was so dejected, and I have never seen any player like that. Everyone was against him. But I salute Babar bhai, he was so strong and he kept going. He never gave up,” Gurbaz added.
Gurbaz is one of the most sought-after batters of the Afghanistan cricket team. He scored 280 runs in the recently concluded ICC Men’s ODI World Cup, scoring a gritty half-century against Pakistan. The Afghan international has been retained by Indian Premier League (IPL) side Kolkata Knight Riders after a decent first season. Gurbaz had scored 227 runs in 11 matches at a healthy strike rate of over 133.
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