Pakistan batting consultant Matthew Hayden spoke about the importance of leadership in the tricky UAE conditions, and attached particular value to captain Babar Azam’s duties.
With the much-awaited clash against India set to take place on Sunday, the Pakistan batting consultant for the T20 World Cup Matthew Hayden stressed on the importance of leadership in such an intense encounter. He also predicted that the margin for error will be minuscule, given the conditions in the UAE.
Apart from that, Hayden brought up examples of MS Dhoni and Eoin Morgan, who didn’t have spectacular seasons from an individual standpoint, but led their sides to perfection in the lastest edition of the Inidan Premier League.
“I feel leadership will be key in the coming match as conditions in UAE leave very little margin for error and there are dogfight conditions out there.
Their individual performances were not as good as they have previously done as per their statistical records but the way they led their troops and conducted themselves played an important part in their teams reaching the IPL final in UAE conditions”
Hayden was quoted as saying by DNA India.
Hayden also touched upon captain Babar Azam’s role, saying that the additional responsibility of captaincy would add additional pressure to an already difficult task for the World No.2 batsman.
One of the most crucial players in the Pakistan line-up, Azam will have a big part to play in both capacities, as Pakistan look to make it deep into the T20 World Cup.
“Babar has command and presence and he needs to fulfill that role in a batting sense and captain. There will be additional pressure on him as captain and batsman because he will be targeted and everyone will be wanting to, like they say, put him in their pocket.”,
he remarked.
Hayden had special words of praise for Indian batsman KL Rahul, who in his opinion has become one of the finest limited-overs batsmen in recent times, after going through a lot of difficult phases en route to making it to the highest level. According to Hayden, the Punjab Kings cricketer is a definite threat to Pakistan’s chances come the high-profile encounter on Sunday.
