Javed Afridi, the Chairman of Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Peshawar Zalmi, gifted a white MG car to star batter Babar Azam for his outstanding performance in the 9th edition of the T20 tournament. Afridi shared pictures of the same on his official account on X as Babar also seemingly took a test drive of the car, which costs approximately ₹22 lakhs.
Babar finished as the highest run-getter in PSL 9 while plying his trade for Peshawar Zalmi. The 29-year-old accumulated 569 runs in 11 innings at 56.90 with five half-centuries and one century. However, Zalmi couldn't clinch the title and exited the tournament in the Eliminator, losing to eventual champions Islamabad United.
Babar Azam returns as Pakistan captain ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024:
Meanwhile, the Lahore-born cricketer has returned as the captain of the Pakistan men's team, albeit under controversial circumstances as the PCB sacked Shaheen Shah Afridi only after 1 series as the T20I skipper. Babar resumed his stint with the ongoing five-game T20I rubber against New Zealand. The first T20I was washed out due to rain and the Men in Green won the 2nd comfortably to take a 1-0 lead.
Nevertheless, the Kiwis bounced back to win the 3rd and levelled the series as Mark Chapman's unbeaten 87 helped them chase 179 with 6 wickets to spare. The action moves to Lahore from Rawalpindi for the 4th and 5th T20I.