If you give 50 balls to Virat, what will he do and what did Babar do: Akhtar

Former pacer Shoaib Akhtar was not pleased with Babar Azam’s inning in the second T20I against South Africa and advised the Pakistan captain to improve his strike-rate.

Babar Azam, who had been holding one end as wickets continued to fall, was bowled by pacer Sisanda Magala after scoring 50 runs off 50 balls at the Wanderers on Monday.

"Our batsmen need to think whether their style of batting and strike-rate is good enough for this format. If you give 50 balls to Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli or Aiden Markram, what will they do and what did Babar do?" Akhtar asked on PTV Sports.

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"Babar is a great player but 50 runs off 50 balls, is not good enough.  You can’t go into your shell if wickets are falling at the other end. Babar can compare his innings to Aiden Markram’s innings. Wickets were also falling when Markram was batting but he still continued to play his attacking cricket and scored 54 from 30. Babar is a star player so he needs to come forward and play attacking cricket," he added.