Just a few days back Shoaib Akhtar criticized Babar Azam for his lack of communication skills. Shoaib then received a lot of backlash from the fans and some former cricketers for his statement.
However, Akhtar now has once again taken an indirect dig at Babar after wicketkeeper-batter Azam Khan played a match-winning knock in a match against Karachi Kings in the ongoing PSL.Chasing 202 against Karachi, Azam Khan played an unbeaten knock of 72 off 41 balls.
After the match, Shoaib praised Azam on Suno News for his knock and said, “I found Azam Khan as a responsible guy who can build the innings, not just slog. He spoke smartly in the interview as well, and it felt nice to hear him speak like that as he talked about his performance. When I was playing 20 years ago, I didn’t care how I spoke. But in today’s era, being in media is a part of your job. I can only indicate and pin-point for you, ‘this is a problem, please go and correct it. It’s for your own benefit’. He (Azam) looked like a captaincy material with the way he spoke.
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Earlier, Akhtar had also backed spinner Shahab Khan to replace Babar Azam as the captain of the national side in the future.
“Shadab is a very smart kid when it comes to cricket skills. He wants to improve, which is a very good thing. He is ready to accept his mistakes and rectify them. In past two years, he has worked very hard on his bowling and his fitness has improved as well. He wants to look good and speak well. In times to come, he is not a bad option for captaincy for Pakistan in white-ball cricket,” Akhtar was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.