Haroon Shahid, Faysal Quraishi call out PTV Sports for body shaming Azam Khan

Faysal Quraishi and singer turned actor Haroon Shahid took to social media to share an insensitive post by Pakistan Television (PTV) Sports’ official social media account, which posted a picture of Azam Khan with a caption that read: “Khata hai lekin lagata nahin.”

Faysal turned to Instagram stories and wrote: “Shame on you @ptvsportspk.”

Similarly, Haroon took to Instagram stories, saying: “Not a joke. At first I thought it’s a fake page running under the name of PTV sports. To my surprising, it wasn’t,” adding, “Is this how we are going to ridicule our players.”

National High-Performance Centre batting coach Mohammad Yousuf said wicketkeeper-batsman Azam Khan can’t look to hit sixes all the time.

He added that Azam has to learn to assess match situations and see what the team needs him to do and what approach he has to take.

Azam, who is the son of former Pakistan captain and wicketkeeper-batsman Moin Khan, recently made his international debut as he featured in the first T20 International against England on Friday.

In the match, which Pakistan won by 31 runs, he made five runs off three balls, which included a boundary.

In the second T20 International, Azam only made one run as Pakistan was beaten by 45 runs.

The 22-year-old was called up to the national team on the back of strong performances in domestic cricket.

In the Pakistan Cup, he accumulated 186 runs in seven games for Sindh, which included a top score of 69, at an average of 46.50 and a strike rate of 124.83.

As for the Pakistan Super League (PSL), he scored 174 runs in 10 matches for the Quetta Gladiators at an average of 17.40 and a strike rate of 133.84.

“Hitting sixes is important in T20s, but a proper batsman has to look at the match situation first and foremost and also look at what the team needs,” Yousuf told a Pakistani media outlet.

Meanwhile, netizens are also trolling Azam with insensitive memes on social media. Hashtag Azam Khan fat was also trending on Twitter.

The three-match T20 series is now tied at 1-1 and the decider will be held on Tuesday.