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'Kya ka king banega'- Fans react as Babar Azam goes out for a duck in first ODI against Afghanistan

Pakistan faces Afghanistan in the first ODI of the three-match ODI series. They won the toss and elected to bat first. 

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Rohit Kumar
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Babar Azam

Babar Azam (Source- Twitter)

Pakistan faces Afghanistan in the first ODI of the three-match ODI series in Hambantota, Sri Lanka. It will be a practice series for both Asian teams ahead of the Asia Cup. Pakistan won the all-important toss and Babar Azam led the side elected to bat first.

Batting first they lost their top two batters inside seven runs. With Fazalhaq Farooqi strikes in the fourth ball of the innings as Fakhar Zaman was caught by Mohammad Nabi for just two runs. Pakistan skipper Babar Azam went out for a duck, he was trapped in front by Mujeeb Ur Rahaman. He got out for 0 after facing 3 balls as early as the second over of the match.

Babar Azam's form concern before Asia Cup?

The Pakistan skipper will be hoping to return to scoring ways in the second ODI. As Pakistan begin their Asia Cup campaign on August 30 in Multan against Nepal, before taking on arch-rivals India on September 2. He had a decent Lanka Premier League (LPL). He scored a total of 261 runs in eight innings, with an average of 32.62, making him the second-highest run-getter of the tournament. But his team failed to qualify for the playoffs.

He also scored a century at the recently concluded LPL. The 28-year-old batter scored the century in just 59 balls. Pakistan were further in trouble after they lost the wicket of Mohammad Rizwan before the first powerplay even ended.

The wicket-keeper batter was looking in good touch, scoring a decent 21 runs off 20 balls. He was looking dangerous but was picked up again by Mujeeb. They are now 59/3 after 15 overs, with Imam-Ul-Haq playing with Agha Salman, the previous one scored 24 runs off 39 balls, while the latter one batted 6 runs off 22 balls.

Pakistan (Playing XI):

Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Agha Salman, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf

Afghanistan (Playing XI):

Rahmanullah Gurbaz(wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Abdul Rahman, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Here's how fans reacted: 

Babar Azam