Adil Rashid ready for another battle with Babar Azam

BIRMINGHAM: England’s star leg-spinner Adil Rashid is ready to take on Babar Azam’s Pakistan when the greenshirts visit England next month.

The four match T20I series is set to take place in second half of May when Pakistan will visit England, en route USA, to begin their campaign in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in June. Speaking exclusively to Geo News, Adil Rashid, whose parents are of Pakistan/Kashmiri origin, said that Pakistan is a very good team and also have a huge fan base in England but his team is also fully prepared to take on them.

“We are fully prepared and ready to face Pakistan team. They are very good team, they got experience and some very explosive players. They always enjoyed big support specially in Birmingham and Leeds so the crowd will be big. We were looking forward to it,” he said.

Adil Rashid is not only a huge admirer of Pakistani skipper Babar Azam’s batting but also enjoys bowling to him and has got him out few times in international cricket, most recently during the final of T20 World Cup in 2022 at MCG.

“I enjoy bowling to everybody as a bowler you have to be careful against each player. But I especially enjoy bowling to Babar Azam because he’s a class player. He is one of the best batters in the world. He’s not only a good player of spin but equally a good player against pacers too. It happens in cricket as it’s the part and parcel of this game and sometimes I might get him out. Hopefully when he comes here, I will try to get him out again,” he said.

Adil Rashid is hopeful that his team can and will successfully defend the title as they have got the mindset and manpower to do so.

“Inshallah, we will defend it and that’s our mindset right now. We’re going into the World Cup with the mindset that we will be trying to retain the title and win it again. We have got the team, the squad in place and the mindset. We’re gonna go out there (USA-West Indies) and take one step at a time and hopefully we will go all the way,” he said.

“In 2019 and 2022 we had two different captains in Eoin Morgan and Buttler both with completely different mindset but our aim is going into that World Cup with winning mindset under Jos Buttler. He’s played all around the world and with his experience he does things differently and know how to handle pressure in different situations, he said.