Babar Azam’s family feud takes a twist as Umar Akmal issues fresh statement on trolling

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 speculation among cricket fans across social media platforms. Within 24 hours after the story, Akmal provided clarification.

Because of continuous speculations and rumours, the former had to explain what he actually wanted to say through the Instagram story. Akmal shared a photo collage of Babar and himself, after Pakistan’s defeat against England in a Super 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. In this match, Babar Azam came to bat at number 4, and disappointed his fans again as he departed after scoring only 25 off 24 with a couple of boundaries. The slow pace of batting of the experienced batter again started a round of criticisms on his strike rate. For the batter, the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026 so far has been full of bad patches.

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So far, Babar, the batting maestro of Pakistan, has scored 91 runs in six matches at an average of 22.75. Amid the scrutiny of his batting and strike rate in T20Is, Umar Akmal’s Instagram story spread across social media platforms like wildfire. Through the story, the former cricketer tried to connect two different matches in a single line- the recent England vs Pakistan match, and the Pakistan vs Australia clash from 2014.

Same situations, but different results

In both matches, Pakistan were in a similar situation. Against England, the Men in Green were down by 2 wickets on 32. In 2014, Against the Aussies, Pakistan was 25/2. From two similar almost positions, in one instance, Pakistan won, and in their latest match, they lost. In 2014, when Pakistan was trailing, Umar Akmal guided the team to a win by scoring an individual 94 off 54 balls.

Umar Akmal's Instagram story. pic.twitter.com/lD37YHOWat

— Sheri. (@CallMeSheri1_) February 26, 2026

Though Babar failed to do so against England in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026. The right-handed batter was dismissed for 25 off 24, and Pakistan lost the match eventually.

While, most of the cricket fans assumed the photo collage shared by Akmal was for comparison with the star batter, the former cleared all doubts in his latest statements. Akmal clarified that the Instagram story was not to draw comparisons between him and Babar, it was just a point about role suitability in the format.

Umar Akmal clarified

“I want to clarify that my aim was never to compare myself with Babar Azam. He is currently one of the top batters in the world, and I have great respect for his achievements. My intention was only to highlight that he is not naturally a middle-order batter in T20 cricket, as that position doesn’t fully suit his batting style. There was no comparison — just a point about role suitability in the format”, Umar Akmal wrote on his ‘X’ post.

I want to clarify that my aim was never to compare myself with Babar Azam. He is currently one of the top batters in the world, and I have great respect for his achievements. My intention was only to highlight that he is not naturally a middle-order batter in T20 cricket, as that… pic.twitter.com/Agn6l8LVeq

— Umar Akmal (@Umar96Akmal) February 27, 2026

Read More: Jason Gillespie urges Babar Azam to trust himself and attack