‘Aur kitna achha chahiye aapko, 300 karlien’: Watch Babar Azam’s epic reply on strike rate

Islamabad United won the toss and opted to field. Batting first, Peshawar scored 156/8 in 20 overs with Babar Azam top-scoring with 75 not out.

In reply, Islamabad reached the target in just 14.5 overs, Rahmanullah Gurbaz scoring 62 off 31 balls and Rassie van der Dussen smashing 42 off 29 balls.

Babar, however, was subjected to harsh criticism for his poor strike rate despite contributing with a respectable knock for his side.

During the post-match conference, when a journalist questioned the skipper about his strike rate, Babar gave a hilarious reply and said, “Aur kitna accha [strike rate] chahiye aapko? 300 kar lein? Koshish hai (How much better do you want? Why not 300? I am trying to reach there as well)”

Watch video:

Babar Azam responds to a question about his strike rate.#HBLPSL8 | #PSL2023 | #PZvIU pic.twitter.com/J5WIImXrLx

— Grassroots Cricket (@grassrootscric) February 23, 2023

The journalist then said, “you are batting brilliantly, I am not questioning you on that…you are world number 1 but it is said that you can improve your strike rate in T20s.”

To this, the 28-year-old batter replied, “People talk when I bat at a good strike rate as well, so that doesn’t bother me. In the first 10 overs, I was striking at 160 and when we were 6 down, there you don’t focus on increasing your strike rate, rather I would build a partnership then and that was my plan in today’s innings.”

“When you build a certain momentum, you try to carry it for long unless it gets broken by a wicket or two, or when you are not able to hit. Then my plan was to build a partnership after the 10-over mark because I told Shanaka that we’ll play normally till 15 overs and then take the charge. Then we lost back-to-back wickets and in that process, the strike rate is bound to come down and it was still 150,” he added.

Meanwhile, Peshawar Zalmi’s next assignment will be against Shaheen Afridi’s Lahore Qalandars on Sunday.