Wasim Akram: “If you do well, everything goes fine. But if you don’t, then you have to be answerable to people and the press. And don’t worry about what people say, you need to be immune to this”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan left-arm seamer Wasim Akram has urged former captain Babar Azam to be “immune” to criticism.
His advice comes after Azam said people can message him their advice since everyone has his number.
Wasim noted that the 29-year-old needs to start performing well again as he will have to keep answering tough questions if he continues falling short of expectations.
“If you do well, everything goes fine. But if you don’t, then you have to be answerable to people and the press. And don’t worry about what people say, you need to be immune to this,” the Sultan of Swing was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam resigned as captain after the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he amassed 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
He recently featured in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against Australia, which the men in green lost 3-0, and amassed 126 runs at an average of 21.
His next assignment will be Pakistan’s five-match T20I series against New Zealand, which gets underway on January 12 in Auckland.
Pakistan Squad for New Zealand T20I Series: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abbas Afridi, Azam Khan (wicketkeeper), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Usama Mir and Zaman Khan