Naveen-ul-Haq opens up on playing under Babar Azam's leadership

Afghanistan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq shared his experiences of playing for Peshawar Zalmi under star batter Babar Azam’s captaincy in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2024.

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Peshawar Zalmi had picked Naveen-ul-Haq in the gold category in the PSL 2024 draft. The player has bagged five wickets from three games at an average of 27 and an economy of 11.25.

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A report by a local website stated that the pacer reportedly shared his views on Babar Azam in a podcast. According to him, the star batter is a “calm” leader who deals with pressure situations in a composed manner.

“From what I have seen, [he is] very chilled, very relaxed,” he was quoted saying in the report. “At this stage, you cannot say things to your bowlers or fielders at every instance, you have to step up whenever it is required. All this can be seen [in Babar’s captaincy], we are all enjoying much under his captaincy.”

He said it is “very easy” for a player to get his point across to the captain and they don’t have any disagreements between them so far. He added that a calm approach is beneficial for the team.

“There comes a time when you are having difficulty on the field or you lose, that time you need a leader who remains calm and keeps the team intact. If your captain starts to get aggressive and hyper, it becomes difficult for the entire team. In our first [PSL] match in Multan, I observed that Babar bhai was very calm, everything has been good,” the Afghanistan player added.

It is pertinent to mention that Peshawar Zalmi are in third place at the PSL 2024 points table with three wins in six games. They started their campaign on a disappointing note having suffered consecutive defeats to Quetta Gladiators and Karachi Kings.

They bounced back to clinch successive wins over Multan Sultans, Lahore Qalandars and Islamabad United. Their second game against Lahore Qalandars was washed out.

Babar Azam, on the other hand, is the leading run-scorer in the PSL 2024 with 330 runs with a century and two fifties to his name.