Former Pakistan cricketer Umar Akmal has responded to the controversy sparked by his recent post comparing Pakistan’s performance in the T20 World Cup. Akmal stressed that he never intended to compare himself with Babar Azam or disrespect him.
Akmal shared a collage highlighting two very different games for Pakistan. The first was his performance against Australia in the 2014 T20 World Cup, where he scored 94 off 54 balls to help Pakistan reverse from 25-2 to 191-5 and achieve a 16-match winning streak. The second picture is of Babar Azam in the 2026 T20 World Cup against England, where he scored 25 off 24 balls while Pakistan could only score 164, allowing England to win in the final.
On X, Akmal clarified that the purpose of the post was to suggest that Babar’s batting style was not suitable for the middle order and was not meant to disparage the Pakistan captain.
“I would like to clarify that my intention was never to compare myself with Babar Azam. He is currently one of the top batsmen in the world and I have huge respect for his achievements. My intention was simply to highlight that he is not a natural middle-order batsman in T20 cricket as the position does not exactly suit his batting style. There is no comparison – just a point about suitability of the role in the format. This is just a fan repost and has not been deliberately edited in any way,” Akmal told X.
