Social media went into a frenzy after alleged posts by batter Babar Azam announcing Test retirement went viral following the PAK v BAN Tests.
The right-handed batter has been the target of a severe backlash following his dismal outing in the recently concluded Test series, in which Bangladesh whitewashed the home side 2-0.
As Pakistan struggled to save the second and last Test against Bangladesh, several posts attributed to Babar Azam began making rounds on social media.
In one of the viral posts, the Pakistan white-ball captain announced his retirement from Test cricket, while another trolled his batting technique and stats after he was removed from Test captaincy.
However, it has been revealed that all such posts were made by parody accounts on social media platform X, as Babar Azam’s official X and Instagram accounts did not feature any such posts.
The first post was made by an X account, titled “Jay Shah ( parody ),” which first shared Babar Azam’s fake Test retirement announcement.
Another post was made by an account titled “Babar Azam – Parody,” making it clear that the posts were not officially made by the star Pakistan batter.
It is worth mentioning here that the right-handed batter scored 64 runs in four innings of the two-match Test series, at an average of 16.
He was dismissed for a duck in the first inning of the opening PAK v BAN Test, while he departed after scoring 22 runs in the second inning.
In the second Test, he once again failed to convert a good start into a big inning as he was dismissed for 31 in the first inning. His second outing in the same game ended after an 11-run knock.
Babar Azam has been under the pump for a while now as he scored only 317 runs in eight Test games in 2023, with a best of 41 runs. His last ton in Test cricket came against New Zealand in Karachi in December 2022.