Shoaib Akhtar takes dig at Pakistan skipper while praising another young batter for his speaking skills

Former Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar has made several headlines over a couple of weeks for his comments about the current Pakistani skipper Babar Azam. Akhtar stated that Babar is not a brand in cricket because he can’t speak proper English. He also compared Babar with Virat Kohli and stated how the Indian batter speaks fluently in English.

However, the fans weren’t happy with his comment by the former pacer, as they believed that Babar’s game is more important than his language. Akhtar again took an indirect dig at Pakistan’s skipper when he praised the young batter, Azam Khan for his brilliant performance in the ongoing Pakistan Super League.

‘He (Azam) looked like a captaincy material with the way he spoke’ – Shoaib Akhtar

Azam has been very impressive in the tournament this year with his consistent performances for Islamabad United. In Islamabad’s recent match against Karachi Kings, Azam scored an unbeaten 72 off just 41 deliveries, as his team chased down the target of 202 runs with four balls to spare. Akhtar was impressed with Azam not just for his match-winning knock, but also for the way he spoke at the post-match presentation of the match. He said that Azam looked like captaincy material with the way he spoke.

“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 pinpoint for you, ‘this is a problem, please go and correct it. It’s for your own benefit’. He (Azam) looked like captaincy material with the way he spoke,” said Akhtar during a chat on Suno News.

“When Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shahid Afridi, and Abdul Razzaq used to play, they would say, ‘the whole ground and its crowd is mine. I control the atmosphere in this place’. And Azam was controlling that. That’s how you become a star. It’s not just about winning ICC Player of the Year awards, no no. The things Azam did… crowd backed him, he took their ownership. He was like, ‘I’m here to run the show’,” he further added.