Pakistani batsman Azhar Ali welcomes new member to his family

Pakistan’s top order batsman Azhar Ali became a proud father once again and welcomed the newest member – a baby boy. On Thursday, he took to Twitter to share the good news with his fans and followers, posting a picture of his son, fast asleep. Azhar thanked the Almighty and said that the newborn has been named Azlan Azhar.

“Alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed us with a baby boy meet a new member of our family, Azlan Azhar,” the tweet read.

Azhar and his wife Naila are parents to two boys whose pictures and videos are often shared by their father on his social media. They seem to be two young cricketers in the making. During the 2017 Champions Trophy, the 32-year-old posted snapshots of his sons with Indian cricketers Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni.

The right-handed batsman is clearly doing great in his life off the field with such a happy family, but his on-field records say a different story. In the New Zealand series in January, he had a streak of low runs scoring 6, 6 and a duck in the first three ODIs – he was dropped from the team after that. His team, however, went on to lose the 5 match series in a humiliating way.

Finding his feet and form once again

However, Azhar found back his form partially playing for the team of Rawalpindi, scoring a century against Peshawar and two more half-centuries against Islamabad and Lahore Blues.

Right now he is the 8th ranked batsman in the ICC rankings, but his performance in the ODI has so far not been satisfactory. After playing 53 matches as a top order batsman, sometimes opening and at other times coming at one down, he only has 3 centuries under his belt.

With away matches lined up with teams like West Indies and England, and the preparations for World Cup 2019 knocking at the door, it is high time Azhar Ali took some of the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.