“We call him Rahul Dravid of Pakistan,” Babar Azam names the young Pakistan batsman who has impressed him a lot

The Pakistan captain Babar Azam has revealed that the young Pakistan top-order batsman Abdullah Shafique is so classical that he is already compared with legends like Kane Williamson and Rahul Dravid inside the Pakistani dressing room.

Abdullah Shafique hasn’t played a lot of first-class cricket, but the Pakistani selectors still picked him for the recent test series against Australia and Shafique got a chance in the playing XI as well, which he grabbed with both hands and scored a hundred against the world-class bowling attack of the Kangaroos.

According to Babar Azam, the reason why Abdullah Shafique is called Dravid by the Pakistani players is that his stance is so clean and there is no clumsiness in his strokeplay. Even when he ducks to the fast bouncers, it seems he has so much time in his hand. He doesn’t look flustered while facing any kind of bowling at all.

Babar Azam preferred Abdullah Shafique over Shan Masood in the test series against Australia

Ahead of the start of the test series against Australia, it was expected that Shan Masood would get the opportunity to open the batting before Abdullah and Abdullah would be the third choice opener after Shan and Imam ul Haq, but the captain Babar Azam benched Shan and went with Abdullah.

The young man repaid the faith shown by the skipper, as he regularly gave the team good starts against Australia. The range that Abdullah Shafique has and because of the fact that he picks the length quickly, many experts believe he can actually play all formats of the game for Pakistan.

However, till now, Abdullah has only been given the opportunity to playtest match cricket for Pakistan. The right-hander is not a part of the Pakistan ODI squad that has been announced under Babar Azam to play against West Indies in a 3-match ODI series at home in a few days’ time.