Asia Cup 2023: Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi Engage In Heated Argument Post Elimination, Mohammad Rizwan Forced To Intervene - Reports

Things are not going right inside the Pakistan Cricket Team following their elimination from the Asia Cup 2023. Skipper Babar Azam was engaged in a heated argument with premier pacer Shaheen Afridi in the dressing room after the game against Sri Lanka as per the reports in BolNews.

Pakistan suffered a disappointing 2-wicket loss against Sri Lanka and was eliminated from the tournament. They displayed poor performance and weren’t up to the mark with both bat as well as ball. With the bat, they were 130/5 at one stage but thanks to Mohammad Rizwan (86*) and Iftikhar Ahmed (47) they ended with a total of 252 runs.

With the ball, they bowled poor lines and lengths and conceded a lot of runs in particular in middle overs. They however, were back in the game during the fag end but couldn’t win as Sri Lanka held their nerves and batted magnificently to book their berth in the final, to be played against India on 17th September.

However, after the loss captain Babar Azam was in absolute shambles. He addressed the team in the dressing room and accused them of not playing responsibly. This didn’t go well with Shaheen Afridi, who interrupted his skipper in the middle of the speech.

Shaheen Afridi reportedly told Babar Azam that he should at least appreciate who bowled and batted well. The captain, however, didn’t like interruption and said ‘I know who’s performing well’. This forced Mohammad Rizwan and the head coach to interrupt and stop the argument between the duo.

The reports suggested that after that Babar Azam left for the press conference and then went straight to the team bus. He didn’t talk to anyone in the hotel team and left for Pakistan with the entire team. The cricket committee formed by PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf including Misbah-ul-Haq, Inzamam-Ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez will look into the matter and review Asia Cup 2023 performance.

Asia Cup 2023: Don’t Think Yourself As Superstar – Babar Azam Launches Attack At His Team Post Elimination – Reports

Recently reports on SamaTv also suggested that Babar Azam launched an attack on his teammates, saying that they shouldn’t think of themselves as superstars and instead should focus on improving their performances. He also criticised them for not playing as a team in the match against Sri Lanka.

It was also learned that Babar Azam told his teammates that they played without heart against Sri Lanka and that’s why they lost. The captain further highlighted that they are approaching the ICC World Cup 2023 and if the players don’t perform and the overall performance is not good not no one will call them stars.