Playing in front of home crowd gives more confidence to players: Babar

• Babar lauded Naseem Shah for his performance on the day saying, "I really enjoy the youngster's second spell."
• "He bowls exactly like the plan we give to him for the match," he added.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's ace batsman Babar Azam on Sunday said Pakistan cricket team was missing the home crowd for almost a decade as the cheer up the team members get when come in the ground build up their confidence.

Addressing a press conference at Pindi Stadium Rawalpindi after the third day's play, he said to play in front of the home crowd was always very special and "I especially gain confidence through the cheer I get in the ground."

Babar lauded Naseem Shah for his performance on the day saying, "I really enjoy the youngster's second spell."

"He bowls exactly like the plan we give to him for the match," he added.

Babar who deems to perform like Former great Younis Khan in future said he always try to give his 100 percent in the match. "The more hard work we put in, the more reward we get."

To a question, he said he was optimistic that Yasir Shah would regain his form and perform better.

He said the Rawalpindi crowd had been outstanding and the wicket and out field was also excellent. "The crowd of Rawalpindi has been very supportive whether the team is bowling or batting," he said.

He praised Shan Masood for his batting and said he also performed well in the match against Sri Lanka.

Babar said he always try to stick to his game whether its Test, ODI or Twenty20. "The Bangladesh bowlers looked prepared for me well as they were bowling me on the off-stump and not giving me room," he said.

He said he gained more confidence on his batting after the South Africa tour and managed to covert his 30 and 40s into 100s.

To a question, he said he got a lot of confidence when people compare him with Indian batsman Virat Kholi and tried to be consistent in his performance in every game.

He said he was honoured to receive the ICC ODI team of 2019 cap from former captain and Pakistan's first ODI centurion, Majid Khan.

Bangladesh cricketer Tamim Iqbal said, "we all make mistakes and that is why we are in this type of situation in the match. I should have played longer as I'm the senior batsman. If we hadn't made mistakes we would have been in a much better situation," he said.

To a question, he said, "we thought we handed Naseem Shah very well before he had the hattrick."

Tamim said, "We have not been performing well for the last 4 to 5 Test matches, specially in the batting department as we have not been scoring runs."

"This is the first time I have come to Pakistan to play Test, but I have been here for T20s and ODIs. Before coming here there were a lot of questions but I knew the minute we are going to land in Pakistan we are only going to think about cricket," he said.

He said he hoped to see a full fledged revival of international cricket in Pakistan. "Pakistan is a cricket loving country just like us. I'm sure a lot more teams will come to Pakistan. The security and everything is excellent here," he said.

Tamim also rated Pakistan Super League as one of the best and said if he would have been available he had been a part of the tournament but Bangladesh had a Zimbabwe series coming up.