Legendary Pakistan pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar has told the captain of the Pakistan cricket team, Babar Azam, to stop giving lame excuses.
This comes after Pakistan was whitewashed 3-0 by England in the recent ODI series. Pakistan also lost the T20 series 2-1.
“It is all lame excuses. There was nothing on the wicket like extraordinary bounce. A little seam movement is expected in England. If you can’t handle that seam, then what will you do?” Akhtar said PTV Sports as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
While in another interview with Sports Tak, Akhtar said: “Virat has what … 70 centuries in international cricket right. So in the next five years, he will get 30 more and I want him to get 120 centuries, or at least 110. See, with these many runs, who can be compared to him? The debate in itself is wrong. And Babar is now coming through. It’s really good that there is healthy competition.”
“If Babar needs to beat Virat and surpass him, he will have to score more runs chasing and play the kind of innings Kohli has. There is no doubt that Babar Azam can probably be the greatest batsman of Pakistan, but it will take time. We will judge Kohli and Babar after 10 years where they stand,” Akhtar added.
“I have a feeling Pakistan and India will play in the T20 World Cup final and India will lose to Pakistan. Conditions in UAE will favour both India and Pakistan,” said Akhtar while talking about the India-Pakistan face-off in the T20 World Cup.
Azam was in fine form during the three ODIs as he accumulated 177 runs, which included a career-best 158, at an average of 59.
As for the T20 series, he scored 118 runs in three matches, which included a top score of 85, at an average of 39.33 and a strike-rate of 151.28.
