On February 26, Umar Akmal, a former Pakistani cricketer and cousin of Babar Azam, shared a cryptic story from his Instagram account, which sparked widespread hypothesis amongst cricket followers throughout social media platforms. Inside 24 hours after the story, Akmal offered clarification.
Due to steady speculations and rumours, the previous needed to clarify what he truly needed to say by way of the Instagram story. Akmal shared a photograph collage of Babar and himself, after Pakistan’s defeat towards England in a Tremendous 8 match of the T20 World Cup 2026.
Why speculations between Babar Azam and Umar Akmal?
On February 24, England outplayed Pakistan by 2 wickets and 5 balls to play, chasing 165. On this match, Babar Azam got here to bat at quantity 4, and disenchanted his followers once more as he departed after scoring solely 25 off 24 with a few boundaries. The sluggish tempo of batting of the skilled batter once more began a spherical of criticisms on his strike fee. For the batter, the continuing T20 World Cup 2026 to this point has been stuffed with dangerous patches.
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To this point, Babar, the batting maestro of Pakistan, has scored 91 runs in six matches at a median of twenty-two.75. Amid the scrutiny of his batting and strike fee in T20Is, Umar Akmal’s Instagram story unfold throughout social media platforms like wildfire. By means of the story, the previous cricketer tried to attach two completely different matches in a single line- the latest England vs Pakistan match, and the Pakistan vs Australia conflict from 2014.
Similar conditions, however completely different outcomes
In each matches, Pakistan had been in an analogous scenario. In opposition to England, the Males in Inexperienced had been down by 2 wickets on 32. In 2014, In opposition to the Aussies, Pakistan was 25/2. From two related nearly positions, in a single occasion, Pakistan received, and of their newest match, they misplaced. In 2014, when Pakistan was trailing, Umar Akmal guided the workforce to a win by scoring a person 94 off 54 balls.
Umar Akmal’s Instagram story. pic.twitter.com/lD37YHOWat
— Sheri. (@CallMeSheri1_) February 26, 2026
Although Babar failed to take action towards England within the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026. The proper-handed batter was dismissed for 25 off 24, and Pakistan misplaced the match ultimately.
Whereas, a lot of the cricket followers assumed the picture collage shared by Akmal was for comparability with the star batter, the previous cleared all doubts in his newest statements. Akmal clarified that the Instagram story was not to attract comparisons between him and Babar, it was only a level about position suitability within the format.
Umar Akmal clarified
“I wish to make clear that my goal was by no means to match myself with Babar Azam. He’s at the moment one of many prime batters on the earth, and I’ve nice respect for his achievements. My intention was solely to focus on that he’s not naturally a middle-order batter in T20 cricket, as that place doesn’t totally go well with his batting type. There was no comparability — only a level about position suitability within the format”, Umar Akmal wrote on his ‘X’ submit.
I wish to make clear that my goal was by no means to match myself with Babar Azam. He’s at the moment one of many prime batters on the earth, and I’ve nice respect for his achievements. My intention was solely to focus on that he’s not naturally a middle-order batter in T20 cricket, as that… pic.twitter.com/Agn6l8LVeq
— Umar Akmal (@Umar96Akmal) February 27, 2026
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