Afridi Revives Feud With Gambhir After His Remarks on Babar

Former Pakistan captain, Shahid Afridi, has hit back at former Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir, for his harsh comments on Babar Azam. Afridi stated that people need to be very careful with the words they use and that criticism should come in a constructive way rather than in an attacking way.

Gambhir had criticized Babar for his captaincy during the ongoing 2022 T20 World Cup. He stated that Babar is a selfish captain as he puts his needs ahead of the team’s needs. He further stated that Babar should have demoted himself down the order while Fakhar Zaman should have been sent in as an opener in Pakistan’s match against the Netherlands.

Gambhir’s criticism did not sit well with Afridi, as he believed that Gambhir’s choice of words was inappropriate. Afridi backed Babar and said that he has been consistently performing over a long period of time with tons of match-winning performances and the failure to live up to the expectations in the 2022 T20 World Cup has made him vulnerable to unwarranted attacks.

“There is always criticism, but you need to be very careful with words. You should use words that should come as advice for the player, and you can make the people understand it as well. As far as Babar is concerned, he has given so many match-winning performances,” Afridi remarked.

Babar will be aiming to get back into form as the Men in Green face an in-form South Africa at Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday. A win for Pakistan will keep their hopes alive of qualifying for the semi-finals while a defeat will be the end of the road for the former champions.