LAHORE: Pakistan captain Babar Azam praised his team members for putting up a fine show in winning the T20 series against Bangladesh and his views were endorsed by visiting team coach Russell Domingo who also lauded the standard of the game displayed by the hosts.

Babar, who was also adjudged as Man of the Match for his brilliant half-century, said all credit of his captaincy and the victory went to the players, especially the senior members and the bowlers who restricted the visiting team to a low score in each match.

He said Pakistan was in need of this series win after losing to Sri Lanka and Australia in back to back series in the recent past. He said Pakistan had included a good number of youngsters and that was a bold decision to test the abilities of the upcoming players and to also increase the pool of players. “Now Pakistan have a good number of options to consider at the time of finalizing the national team for the T20 World Cup, being held in Australia later this year,” said Babar.

He said it was more important for Pakistan to keep the same kind of form in the coming matches to be considered as a potential threat to the best teams in the World Cup and to also maintain its top World No. 1 ranking in this format.

He praised the performances of both the seniors, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez, who were recalled in the team on Babar’s recommendations. He said it was a good sign for Pakistan that both Hafeez and Shoaib had performed well.

Meanwhile, BD team manager Domingo said Pakistan played good cricket in both the matches. “Although Bangladesh tried its level best to put up a fight, they could not post formidable totals on the board,” he admitted.

Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah, though, was a disappointed man and said his team could not apply themselves with the bat, except for Tamim Iqbal. “We should have scored 150 to 160 runs but failed to post that in both the matches,” he said. He also gave credit to fine bowling by Pakistani bowlers who did not allow his batsmen to settle down for any big partnership or innings.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2020