"You are a fake King:" Ahmed Shehzad lashes out at Babar Azam for poor performance

Former Pakistan cricketer Ahmed Shehzad has lashed out at national team captain Babar Azam, calling him a "fake king" due to his poor performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. 

The opener made these comments during the Geo News program "Harna Mana Hai" when shown his statistics compared to Babar Azam's.

"We used to get 2.5 to 3 lacs rupees [as salary], while now they [cricketers] get 50 lacs per month. Babar is the captain, but he has failed to adopt modern cricket," Shehzad said.

"The strongest captain in Pakistan was held accountable after 2 to 3 series, but no one held Babar accountable. Even in 5 years of [his] captaincy, Babar could not win a single trophy for the country," he added.

The 32-year-old cricketer further accused the 28-year-old batter of ignoring domestic cricketers and disrupting the system of domestic cricket to accommodate his friends.

"I believe I could have improved my stats but Babar's stats are worse than mine. If you [Babar] are a king then you are a fake king.... now you must admit that you are responsible [for Pakistan's lackluster performance]."

Shahzad also advised Babar to play domestic cricket to improve his performance.

The criticism came after Pakistan's poor performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup.

Pakistan faced two consecutive defeats against the USA and India in the mega event.

Babar-XI was beaten by the debutant USA by five runs in a super-over thriller on June 6 at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.

On June 9, India triumphed over Pakistan by six runs in a high-voltage match of the ongoing mega event at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.

However, the Men in Green registered their first victory of the short-over tournament against Canada on June 11.