http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Azhar-Mahmood-c1116 – An inspiration for Kings XI Punjab - Opinion
Kings XI Punjab is not a highly rated team in the Indian Premier League (IPL), as it does not have big names like some of the other teams in the tournament. The franchise did not start the fifth season of the cash-rich tournament in a nice fashion and was
struggling to get some momentum in the initial stages of the event.
However, Punjab has bounced back recently against all odds and is now in contention to qualify for the play-off stage of the tournament. At the present moment, Kings XI is at number five on the points table with 12 points after as many matches.
Azhar Mahmood, the out of favour Pakistani all-rounder, has played a huge role for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, the all-rounder
has turned the tables for his team.
The medium-fast bowler made his way to international cricket in 1996 and remained a crucial part of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 at the start of his career.
Azhar has been ignored by the national selectors since the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Cricket World Cup 2007. However, the 37-year-old cricketer has been playing T20 cricket all around the globe in recent years. On top of that, Mahmood has been playing county cricket consistently
for a number of years now.
The captain and coach of Punjab, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Gilchrist-c918 admits that his team was struggling to get going before the arrival of Mahmood and has no doubts in his mind that the discarded Pakistani all-rounder has changed the fortunes of his franchise.
Gilchrist said, “Azhar (Mahmood) has been impressive with his whole approach and the attitude. He is level-headed and wants to share it with others on the field as well as off it. He certainly has made a nice, little impact for us.”
The medium-fast bowler has been consistently bowling well in the tournament and has given a number of crucial breakthroughs to his team. He has gained so much confidence that he regularly bowls the death overs of an innings. He has so far picked up eight
wickets in seven matches at an impressive average of 25.62 runs per scalp. His economy rate has been merely 7.5, which is not bad for the shortest format of the game.
On top of that, Azhar has played a couple of brilliant cameos with the bat and has proved his worth as an all-rounder. His mentor revealed that Azhar wants to bat higher up the order but that is not possible because of the team combination. Gilchrist wants
the hard-hitting batsman to play big knocks, instead of 20s or 30s.
“It’s a shame that he couldn’t convert that into a big knock, but these are the sort of small moments of impact. It definitely gave us the impetus, and he has been dying to get into the top-order,” the former Australian wicketkeeper/batsman added.
Azhar is the only Pakistani cricketer to be playing in the league and that too because of his dual British nationality. His performance also goes to show that Pakistani cricketers cannot be ignored in any world event, because of their natural talent.
With the fifth season coming close to an end, Kings XI will be hoping that Azhar can carry on with the good form, in order to enhance his team’s chances of lifting the illustrious trophy for the first time in five years.
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