“Apni cricket me focus karein, jaise Virat Kohli focus karta hai”: Kamran Akmal suggests Babar Azam to quit Pakistan captaincy; advises him to focus solely as a player

It took the Pakistan team and its ardent fans a good couple of days to get over their agonizing loss against arch-rivals India in their T20 World Cup 2022 opener at the MCG last Sunday. If this was not it, Babar Azam’s men became the victim of an upset of the highest order a couple of days later, when they lost against a low-ranked Zimbabwean side by 1 run, to now almost find themselves on the brink of elimination from the tournament.

With three more ‘Super 12’ matches to go, and with each one of them now being a knock-out game for them, Pakistan will now face the Netherlands next at the Perth Stadium on Sunday, who akin Zimbabwe had made it past the group stage of the Cup earlier.

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Ahead of the match eve however, former Pakistan wicket-keeper batter has come up with a controversial statement, or rather an advice for Babar to give up on his role as Pakistan skipper post the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022.

Kamran Akmal suggests Babar Azam to focus solely as a player in the team

During an interaction with  ARY News, Kamran Akmal has suggested Babar Azam, who also happens to be his cousin, to relinquish his duties as Pakistan skipper and rather focus on a career in the sole capacity of a batter.

Akmal remarked that Babar should follow the footsteps of former India captain Virat Kohli, who had also stepped down from his position (as India T20 captain) post the 2021 T20 World Cup in UAE.

“Agar aapko uss se 22-25000 run karwaane hain, toh usko as a player khilayein. Varna vo itna under-pressure aayega, agar Babar ya mere chachu samajhte hain, usko step down kar dena chahiye. (If you want 22-25,000 runs from him, you have to keep him purely as a player or else he would be under-pressure. If Babar or his father understand this, he should step down),” remarked Akmal.

Babar, and even his opening partner in white-ball Cricket Mohammad Rizwan, have been criticized way too often leading to the lost T20I against Zimbabwe as well, that the duo have unwarrantedly put too much of a price tag on their wickets (by batting at unacceptable strike-rates throughout their innings) which have led to undue pressure on the middle order.