Salman Agha has been batting with Babar Azam since their Under-16 days, so it's not surprising that, now in their 30s, they are attuned to each other's rhythm. It was in evidence during Pakistan's T20I series decider against South Africa on Saturday when, joining hands at a tricky phase in the chase, they went about the task at hand.
"Babar and I have known each other for a long time," Agha said. "When you know someone so well, it feels easier batting together. We're experienced enough to know the asking rate wasn't extremely high."
Perhaps there never was a time when Pakistan were not in control of the chase, but when the wicket fell to bring their captain to the crease alongside Babar, the perch from which they dominated the game had begun to wobble. Pakistan were scoring at about a run a ball into the eighth over, with Agha taking his time to settle, and the asking rate at the 8-an-over mark.
"Singles and doubles would have been enough to win the game," Agha said. "That's what we were doing, and we knew we'd get an over like the one against Baartman [where we hit four boundaries], and that almost finished the game."
Three of those boundaries came off the bat of Babar, who, by then, had smoothly moved gears and was beginning to approach vintage Babar territory. The third, a trademark Babar cover drive, brought him his first T20I half-century in 18 months, and his 40th T20I score over 50, a record.
But it was earlier in the innings that the former Pakistan captain showed signs he was prepared to play a different kind of knock. When the parsimonious George Linde fired one into his pads, he got down and swept him crisply away for four. One of the weaknesses of Babar's batting portfolio is his discomfort playing the sweep, but he deployed it several times early in his innings, and to great effect.
For Agha, it is his desire to adapt and improve that stands out most in what he admires about his old friend. "You may all be fans of his batting, but I'm a fan of Babar's work ethic. The way he prepares, I have not seen anyone prepare as well as he does in international cricket. Whether he's performing or not, his preparation is always spot on.
"He knows he needs to bring new things into his game. That sweep shot, which you do not normally associate with him, got him a number of runs today. He understands this stuff because he's such a big player, and he recognises he needs to take things to the next level. I really hope we see this kind of Babar in future, because if he performs, we'll definitely win matches. That's a good sign for us."
It left the crowd - at over 32,000, officially the biggest in Pakistan's history - content as they made their way to the exits, having waited until Babar's innings finally came to an end. By then, the outcome of the game was all but certain, even if a little tremor at the end took the game to the final six deliveries.
"We're all delighted for Babar. The whole country is. In big games, big players step up. He did that today, and I really hope he continues along this vein and we see this Babar perform in the next four or five years.
"We've won both matches comprehensively. The bowlers kept them under par, and that's what we discuss in team meetings. Score above par and keep other teams below par. The bowling did their job and it was an easy chase in both games."
The mood in the Pakistan camp is a lot brighter than it might have been earlier in the week. The series started with a limp performance that allowed South Africa to take a 1-0 lead in Islamabad. It seemed, after some of the progress seen during Pakistan's Asia Cup run to the final, that the problems of old had begun to resurface. But Agha pushed back against "a prevailing narrative" that this T20 side he has now led for the best part of a year is doing poorly.
"You can spin it anyway, but we played the Asia Cup final, won the tri-nation series and the West Indies series. We scored big runs in those series. Here, we prepared relatively low scoring pitches because going forward, we're playing a World Cup in Sri Lanka. I don't think we'll have 170-180 type matches. It'll be the 140-150 kind of pitches. And those are the kinds we need to prepare for.
"There's a narrative that this team is not performing well. We only lost the away Bangladesh series in the last few months and the Asia Cup final. The narrative is this team's performance isn't great, but if you talk factually, our performances have been great, and our winning ratio [since the end of the PSL] is 70% [66.6%]. That's the winning ratio of the best teams in the world."