Pakistan captain Babar Azam is enjoying a good run with the bat across all formats of the game and there is no stopping the young leader it seems. He started off the ODI series vs West Indies at home with a fine hundred and followed it with a top-class 77. He is in red hot form at the moment, which helped Pakistan win the series 3-0. Not to forget, before this, Babar-led Pakistan had beaten Windies in the T20 series that had happened last year in December. Under his leadership, Pakistan reached the semis of the T20 World Cup 2021 held in UAE where they were beaten by Australians. Pakistan has been playing extremely well under Babar's captaincy and the burden of leading his side has not really affected his performances with the bat.
After helping his side seal series vs West Indies, the Pakistan captain made a big statement, saying that his goal is to win 2 World Cups for Pakistan in the coming 18 months. Not to forget, one of these World Cup is to take place in India. There are 2 World Cup scheduled in the next year and a half. First, the T20 World Cup set to take place in Australia later this year. The 50-over ODI World Cup will take place in India in 2023.
We're living in the @babarazam258 era _
The __ captain brings up his 17th ODI century _#PAKvWI | #KhelAbhiBaqiHai pic.twitter.com/Vp5oN70gWy
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) June 8, 2022
“No doubt I am enjoying my form. But with this form, my prime goal is to win the two World Cups for Pakistan in the next one-and-a-half years and if that happens I will feel that my runs are worth gold,” Azam was quoted as saying by India Today.
Till date, Pakistan have won only 2 World Cups as against India's 3. Pakistan first won a World Cup in 1992 in Australia under the leadership of Imran Khan, former Prime Minister of Pakistan. Then under Younis Khan's captaincy, Pakistan clinched the T20 World Cup in 2009 in England, beating Sri Lanka in the final.
"When I started playing cricket as a schoolboy the target was to play international cricket for Pakistan, become the world’s top batsman in such a manner that it helps my team to win all the titles,"Babar further said.
It will be interesting to see how Pakistan play in the 2023 World Cup and how far they go in the edition of mega event set to take place in India. If Babar Azam's side manages to win the final of the 2023 World Cup final, it will be the first time that any Pakistan team will lift the World Cup on the Indian soil. Knowing how passionate Babar is, especially after becoming the captain, it will be interesting to see how the Pakistan team goes about planning for the two upcoming mega events.
