Shoaib Akhtar speaks up on Babar Azam's removal

Former cricketer Shoaib Akhtar opened up on prolific batter Babar Azam’s resignation as Pakistan’s all-format captain.

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Babar Azam stepped down as leader of all Pakistan international teams over the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 debacle. Green Shirts had failed to qualify for the knockout stages after suffering five defeats in the round-robin stage.

pic.twitter.com/8hZqS9JH0M

— Babar Azam (@babarazam258) November 15, 2023

The Pakistan Cricket Board replaced him with Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi as the Test and T20I captain.

Presenting our captains 🇵🇰@shani_official has been appointed Test captain while @iShaheenAfridi will lead the T20I side. pic.twitter.com/wPSebUB60m

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) November 15, 2023

Shoaib Akhtar talked about Babar Azam’s resignation and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) management on an India sports show. According to the former pacer, he accused the governing body of being unjust to the batter.

“The treatment with Babar Azam was unjust,” he said. “I categorically say that in such a short time, he should not have been removed from the captaincy of Test matches. Even though he said he didn’t want captaincy of all formats and the board was insisting on him captaining Test matches, he shouldn’t have resigned, and he shouldn’t have been pushed out.”

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A post shared by Babar Azam (@babarazam)

He accused the cricket board of abandoning the players when they struggled.

“We are experts in removing someone from their position and this is how the entire management of Pakistan works, just remove and banish,” he said.

Shoaib Akhtar said he would have given Babar Azam a grace period of a month.