Pakistan pacer Aamer Jamal named wicketkeeper-batter Azam Khan as his toughest batter to bowl to in the national team as well. Jamal has played six T20Is for Pakistan and made his debut in Tests during the Australian tour at the end of last year as well, picking up an incredible 18 wickets in three games as well.

Meanwhile, Azam Khan, the hard-hitting batter, has an overall T20 record with an average of 24.74 and a strike rate of 147.96 in 166 games so far. While Jamal has bowled only 10 balls to Azam in competitive cricket and gave away 14 runs, they have played each other several times in the nets as well. When asked to pick his toughest challenge on the Pakistan side, Jamal was quoted by CricketPakistan as saying,

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“In Pakistan, I don’t want to bowl to Azam (Khan). The reason was that in a white ball, you have only two or three options. There are not many options. You can either bowl Yorker, Slow, or Bouncer. Whenever I bowled to Azam, he has hit me very badly. He hit me very fast. When I bowled to him in the last match, I told him not to hit straight because I couldn’t have time to blink.”

Despite being a good show, Azam Khan has struggled to replicate those performances in international cricket as well. The youngster has scored only 88 runs at a poor average of under 9 in 14 T20I games. Aamer Jamal also feels Azam Khan has been under pressure due to the
lack of consistent backing despite his poor results as well.

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“I think Azam is under pressure because he didn’t have a good start. Whether it was his debut or comeback. Otherwise being a player, I will never criticize Azam. I think if you want to develop a player, the process will be that if you give him a start in the conditions that he has performed, his confidence level builds and boosts and he will give you performances in any condition,” again said Aamer Jamal.