Wahab Riaz: “Sometimes I felt as if Babar was told to make certain statements”
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Left-arm pace bowler Wahab Riaz has questioned how much power and authority Pakistan captain Babar Azam had during Ramiz Raja’s tenure as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman.
Providing more details, Wahab feels as if Azam was forced to “make certain statements” at times even though it did not truly reflect what was going on.
It should be noted that Ramiz has been removed from the PCB chairman role and was succeeded by Najam Sethi.
“Sometimes I felt as if Babar was told to make certain statements,” Wahab told Samaa News as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
The 37-year-old recently played for the Khulna Tigers in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), where he finished with 13 wickets in seven matches, which included two four-wicket hauls, at an average of 14.07 and an economy rate of 6.90.
He will now be hoping to maintain his wicket-taking momentum for the Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which is the team Azam is captaining.
Azam moved to the franchise from the Karachi Kings in exchange for Pakistan big-hitting batsmen Haider Ali and Shoaib Malik.
The Zalmi began their campaign with a match against the Kings on Tuesday, which they won by two runs.
Azam scored 68 runs off 46 balls, which included seven boundaries and a six, while Wahab finished with figures of 2-34 off his four overs.
The Zalmi’s next match will be against the Multan Sultans on February 17.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 8: Babar Azam, Rovman Powell, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (Sri Lanka), Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Sherfane Rutherford, Wahab Riaz, Arshad Iqbal, Danish Aziz, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Saim Ayub, Salman Irshad, Usman Qadir, Haseebullah Khan, Sufyan Muqeem, James Neesham, Khurram Shahzad, Haris Sohail and Richard Gleeson