Babar Azam has divided opinions in the cricket fraternity as captain of the Pakistan side and he has given up the role after a mediocre World Cup campaign. However, current red-ball skipper Shan Masood believes that Babar Azam is a valuable part of the leadership group and his insights are immeasurable. "I have a really good relationship with Babar Azam, on and off the field. We have a long working history as we have played together for a very long time. We have batted together in both in domestic and national level cricket. Babar is a valuable part of the team's leadership group and his insight to the team is immeasurable, as is his batting," Masood told reporters on Wednesday. Having started off their World Cup campaign with back-to-back wins, Pakistan lost track in the middle of the league stage as they lost four games in a row, including a first-ever loss to Afghanistan in the 50-overs format resulting in Babar stepping down as captain Pakistan as part of their World Test Championship (WTC) cycle will be travelling to Australia for a three-match Test series which is to start in the first week of December. It will be their first series as captain for Masood. "The opportunity presented to us is exciting and challenging for us as a team. We have started the World Test Championship on a good note so far and our goal is to continue that and hopefully play the final. We have prepared intensively,” Masood said. “Other than the 18 players travelling to Australia, we added other players in the camp too and we got help from specialised coaches to hone our skills. We will be practicing in Canberra after we arrive in Australia and then we have a match against Prime Minister’s XI, which is a solid side as well, so we are hoping that it will help us prepare for the three Test matches well," the new Pakistan skipper would say.
