Wasim Akram has criticized Babar Azam for his shirt swap with Virat Kohli following Pakistan's humbling loss to India in Ahmedabad in the World Cup 2023 on Saturday, reports India Today.
Winning the toss, India elected to field first. Pakistan struggled to play the full 50 overs and were bowled out for just 192 runs. In response, India chased down the target comfortably, winning the match by seven wickets. Rohit Sharma played a sublime innings of 86, leading India to the 192-run target set by Pakistan.
Babar Azam, despite his team's loss, top-scored for Pakistan with 50 runs and added 82 runs for the third wicket with Mohammad Rizwan. However, the Men in Green crumbled under pressure, losing eight wickets for 36 runs to get bowled out.
After the match, Virat Kohli's gesture of gifting his signed jersey to Babar Azam was widely appreciated by fans on social media. The two modern-day greats share a good bond and have often expressed their admiration for each other.
However, Akram wasn't too pleased with it. During a panel discussion on the show, The Pavilion, after the match, a fan question was read out where the person had criticized the Pakistan skipper for his moment with Kohli.
“I can see Babar is receiving two shirts from Virat Kohli,” the question read as quoted by Wisden. “Everybody is showing this clip over and over again. But after your fans are so hurt after a disappointing performance, this should be a private matter, it should not be done in an open ground.”
Akram agreed to this and said Saturday wasn't the day to do it and could have been done inside the dressing room
“That’s what I exactly said when I saw the picture [getting the shirts publicly, not privately],” Akram said. “Today was not the day to do this. If you want to do it - if your uncle’s son has asked you to get Kohli’s shirt - then do it after the game in the dressing room.”