Babar Azam wouldn't fit in India, Australia or England's best XI: Shoaib Malik disrespects Pakistan captain on live TV

Former Pakistan batter Shoaib Malik bashed current skipper Babar Azam for not being good enough as a cricketer.

In the previous T20 World Cup edition in 2022, it was the Pakistani team that had reached the finals of the tournament. And this time around their arch-rivals India made it to the final match of the 20-team event. Although Babar Azam's Pakistan weren't able to beat England in the final, Rohit Sharma's Indian team defeated South Africa in the finale yesterday. 

In what was the South Africans' maiden appearance at a World Cup final, the Indian team were very close to handing them the T20 WC title. For most parts of the 2nd innings during the Proteas run-chase, the Men in Blue were not even in contention to win as by the 15th over, the equation had come down to run-a-ball. 

From there, all-rounder Hardik Pandya and Pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh dragged the match back to India's hands. Pandya was the one who came up with the major breakthrough of Heinrich Klaasen, who seemed to be taking South Africa home. 

Then Arshdeep Singh removed Quinton de Kock while Jasprit Bumrah removed Marco Jansen who could have been dangerous as well. Another major breakthrough was taken by Hardik Pandya as he removed the very dangerous David Miller who was in a killer form.

With that, India became the first Asian team and 3rd overall to win the ICC T20 World Cup twice in the tournament's history. Pakistan and Sri Lanka both have one title each and with the way these two play cricket nowadays, them winning the WC seems like a distant thought.

Speaking of Pakistan, the 2009 winners, after ending as runners-up of the previous edition, could not even get past the group stage this time. They lost back-to-back matches against the USA and India in Group A fixtures with all of the blame falling over Babar Azam and his captaincy tactics. 

There are some shake-ups in the Pakistani team that are expected to take place, not anything major or drastic but certainly for the future. It will be interesting to see if Babar Azam gets retained as captain during Gary Kirsten's head coaching tenure. 

What did Shoaib Malik say about Babar Azam

Shoaib Malik was speaking to Ten Sports yesterday and therein he was comparing Babar Azam to other players worldwide. He also put himself in a hypothetical situation wherein he asked if Babar could be a good fit in other T20 teams of the world or not. 

Very often we hear that Virat Kohli would have been a perfect match for teams like Australia and England among others due to his skills. But when it comes to Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik feels that Pakistan's best cricketer has no chance of finding himself in an Aussie or English team. 

"Who is our best player? Our best player is Babar Azam. I'm only talking about the top 4-5 teams in the world. If Babar Azam is to put into the Australian, England or Indian T20I team, is he a good fit? No," Shoaib Malik said