Babar Azam Quotes

Well, I've always prefered playing spin off the back foot because, to my mind, it takes short leg and silly point out of the equation.

In 50over cricket there are different ways of playing. It's not all about smacking it over the top. It's important someone bats through the innings. That would be one of the options for me.

If you are playing on a turning wicket, toss plays an important role. The team that wins the toss gets an opportunity to play on the fresh wicket. You should always prepare the wicket as per team's strength. But a rank turner might backfire.

There are very rare occasions when you get a good wicket to bat on, but whatever wicket you get, you have to play at least 20 overs for your side.

I'd love to see pitches start very dry all over the world, which is good for batting but means there will be turn - a cricket match without spinners is like a chess match without two important pieces - a less interesting game.

The off spinner's job is to contain; for me, leg spinners need to have a bigger heart than anyone else because it is easy to blame them.

First six overs are important because if you put runs on board, it will take the pressure off the other batsmen.

If you are batting first as an opener, you give yourselves a couple of overs, see what's the wicket behaving, and then try to assess what a good score on that wicket would be, and then you plan accordingly.

There is no specific formula that you need to follow to do well on certain wickets.

As an opening batsman, it's my responsibility to spend as much time in the middle as I can and try and get big scores in the first innings so that we don't have to bat in the second innings.

T20 cricket is all about using variations, and timing has to be perfect.

In Twenty20s, you have to bowl a lot fuller, especially at the death, and you've got to be mindful of what you're doing. But it's still cricket.

Cricket is not rocket science. Bowlers often get wickets through perseverance, accuracy and being patient rather than trying to blast opposition teams out.

When you are playing the longer version, there are times when you don't have to get bat on ball on a regular basis but maybe a good leave outside the off stump can play its part in you surviving and the time that you would like to spend on the crease.

I enjoy wicket-keeping in the shorter format. I think when we are bowling first, it gives me an idea of how the wicket is behaving.

In India, the wicket tends to get a bit slower once the ball gets old, but in England, it's pretty much the same whether it's new ball or old ball.

Spinners have a main role, whether in the IPL or world cricket. But it's hard to be a legspinner: you have to be accurate.

Leg spinners can change the game.

You have to be smart on your feet. It will be hard on wickets where the ball will keep low. Hopefully, you can get one to fly, and that puts doubts in the batsman's mind.

The want to get more runs increases when there is a dearth of it. At those times, it is important to be patient and keep your calm.

That is one of the great things about Test cricket, the ball. Sometimes it swings conventionally, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it reverses.

The start of the English county season - from April to mid-May when it's cold - is the same as South Africa because it seams and swings. After that, the ball starts spinning nicely, and that's when I get my wickets.

The stats suggest that I'm not a dasher. It doesn't mean I can't play the shots, but when you find a method in four-day and Test cricket that works for you, you stick with it.

Shot selection is very important because you don't want to lose wickets at the start and put pressure on the rest of the side.

Wherever we play, the batsmen have bigger responsibility in ODI and T20 formats to set up big targets and give that cushion to bowlers.