'Virat Kohli scored a century against Afghanistan, they forgot their entire Asia Cup' - PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja lashes out at Babar Azam's critics

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ramiz Raja has slammed the country's cricketing critics for criticising Babar Azam's strike rate. Giving a befitting reply to them, Raja cited Virat Kohli's example and explained how the passionate Indian fans even forgot of winning the Asia Cup after the batting megastar hit a century against Afghanistan. 

Ramiz has made it clear that he is against the destructive criticism coming from the fans and media saying that the players can have a bad day as well. Backing Pakistan team's collective performances in the last ten months he mentioned that even though they used to falter at the very first hurdle, but are now making to the knockouts consistently. 

That is not what Indian fans and media do: Ramiz Raja

“Previously we used to falter at the very first hurdle. Yes we reached the final and yes we did not play well. But it's okay to have a bad day. But there were others teams as well in the Asia Cup. I mean then India should then have been severely criticised for not reaching the final. But that is not what their fans and media do. I'll tell you...when Virat Kohli scored a century against Afghanistan, they forgot their entire Asia Cup. Will we ever do that? What we say is that Babar Azam scored a ton, but his strike rate was 135 while David Warner's was 147.3. So this is useless,” said Ramiz Raja while speaking to Samaa TV.

While Babar did score a match-winning century in the second game of the recently-concluded seven-match T20I series at home against England where him and Mohammad Rizwan  were involved in an unbeaten 203-run opening stand, he could not score at a brisk rate in the rest of the games.

Even though the Pakistan batting superstar scored an unbeaten 59-ball 87 in the sixth T20I and tried his level best to keep the scoreboard ticking in the death overs, he had to adopt a cautious approach with wickets falling at the other end. The hosts ended up posting 169/6.

However, it was not enough on a flat surface as English opener Phil Salt single-handedly took the match away from Pakistan with his quickfire 88 not out from 41 deliveries at an outstanding strike rate of 214.6. The Three Lions reached the target in the 15th over.