Babar Azam faced me quite bravely in nets, tweets Shoaib Akhtar

The Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar tweeted that cricketer Babar Azam had faced his fast threatening bowling quite bravely in the nets.

During an interview, Babar Azam shared his experience of facing Akhtar at the age of 15. He told,

“I remember, there was a camp for the emerging players or Pakistan A and our U-15 team was also called for it. Shoaib Akhtar would come there at times, towards the end of the camp to bowl for a bit. One day, he asked for a batsman to bowl at and Mudassar Bhai asked him to take me. So I got ready and was quite excited. Shoaib told me, ‘Kid, I will pitch the ball full, just block it, don’t drive’. I said okay. I blocked the first two balls but drove the third one.”

Azam went on to say,

“I kept doing that, block two balls, and drive the third one. He was like, ‘Get me a new ball, I will show him. Immediately, Mudassar Bhai told me, get out of the nets or he will kill you”.

In response, Shoaib Akhtar took to his Twitter account and replied,

“He was talented then, he is talented now. Babar Azam faced me quite bravely in nets.”

He was talented then, he is talented now. @babarazam258 faced me quite bravely in nets. https://t.co/vQXjPHrQPD

— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) June 11, 2020