Former Pakistan cricketer Ramiz Raja believes young prospect Haider Ali has what it takes to be as good as Virat Kohli and Babar Azam.
Raja is advising the 19-year-old talent follows their approach as he looks to continue his progress in the sport. Ali has impressed during this season’s Pakistan Super League when playing for Peshawar Zalmi. He smashed 239 runs in just nine PSL matches before the tournament was postponed due to the Coronavirus.
The right-handed batsman became the youngest to score a half-century in the history of the PSL when Zalmi beat Lahore at Gaddafi Stadium.
Raja thinks Ali has the talent to become a big star if he can find consistency in his performances. He said: “Haider has immense talent and has made a name for himself in his first season of PSL.
‘‘However, he needs to bring consistency in his performance and his ideal position is number three in the batting order. He has big quality shots in his armour and doesn’t need to improvise much as his power-hitting base is quite strong.
“Haider needs to follow the approach of Babar Azam and Virat Kohli. These two don’t improvise much as they have so much talent and rely mainly on conventional shots. Haider has similar talent as Babar and Kohli, but just needs to work on his game awareness and play longer innings,” he added.
PSL Coronavirus tests are negative
The Pakistan Cricket Board has said that all of the 128 Coronavirus tests carried out on PSL players, support staff and match officials have come back negative.
Multan Sultans also arranged for 17 tests and they were also negative. Despite all overseas stars leaving in the wake of the pandemic, the results give hope that the tournament can be concluded. Organisers took the decision this week to postpone the PSL semi-finals and final but said it could be rescheduled.
League officials had already taken the decision to reduce the remaining matches in an attempt to complete the tournament. The pre-planned play-off structure was abandoned in favour of a straight, three-match option consisting of two semi-finals and a final.
