Azhar Ali sets his initial goal for Test cricket

Pakistan‘s superstar batsman Azhar Ali has set his initial goal for the longest format of the game, as he wants to represent the country minimum in 100 Tests.

In an interview, the 33-year-old said, “I would like to reach the 100 Tests milestone for Pakistan.”

When asked, Do you have the target of achieving 10,000 Test runs, he replied, “At the moment, I don’t have any such goals in my mind.”

“What I am looking forward to is to play as long as I can for my country. In doing so, I would like to reach the 100 Tests milestone for Pakistan. I have already played 65 Tests so far so there are another 35 to go before I can I achieve that goal,” he added.

Commenting on Pakistan’s recent performance in Test cricket, He believes that Pakistan need to have more patience as far as the Test team is concerned.

“You have to realise that two very senior players (Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan) have left this side and like any other side in the world facing such a situation, the challenges are many for us.

Any new player who comes into the side will take his time to settle in and to understand his role in the team. Make no mistake, we have some talented players, but it is too much to expect them to become a Younis Khan in no time at all, he added.

Having said that, we must appreciate the fact that this young and inexperienced side came over to Ireland and England and won two Tests of the three that they played there.

Praising Pakistan’s selection committee he said that they are already showing a lot of patience in the way they have persisted with some of the youngsters and have also defended their decisions with great passion which must give confidence to the selected players.

“We have seen the results of such confidence shown in abilities by the selectors in the way players like Babar Azam have developed over time or in the way Hasan Ali and Fakhar Zaman, although he has yet to play a Test, are being helped along to become more established players,” he added.