Former Pakistan cricketer, Shoaib Akhtar, has slammed Babar Azam’s communication skills in a recent interview with a local TV channel.

Former cricketer said that current cricketers need to be media savvy, in order to further their brand image.

"Cricket is one job and handling media is another job. If you can’t speak, I am sorry but you won’t be able to express yourself on the TV,” Akhtar said.

"I want to openly say this that Babar Azam should be the biggest brand of Pakistan, but why he hasn’t become the biggest brand in Pakistan? Because he can’t speak,” he added.

Akhtar also mentioned the aforementioned reason as to why former cricketers are preferred over present day cricketers by brands for advertisements.

"Is there any other cricketer who can speak well? Why only me, Shahid Afridi and Wasim Akram get all the advertisements?  The reason is that we take it as a job.

In 2020, Babar in a press conference was asked about his English Language skills, to which he responded that he is working on improving his communication skills.

“I’m a cricketer; my job is to play cricket. I am not a ‘gora,’ who knows English thoroughly. Yes, I am working on it, but you learn these things over a period of time, you can’t just suddenly learn it,” Babar had said.