Shoaib Malik reacts to his criticism by Mohammad Yousuf over Babar Azam captaincy remark

Shoaib Malik has reacted to his criticism by former Pakistan skipper Mohammad Yousuf over the remarks the former made on Babar Azam’s captaincy. After Pakistan’s defeat to India in the World Cup 2023, Malik questioned Babar’s captaincy in a show on A Sports. “I gave an opinion in the past as well that Babar Azam should leave captaincy. This is my personal opinion. Babar does not think out of the box as a captain. He is doing captaincy but the improvement is not coming. He can do wonders for Pakistan as a player,” Malik said adding that, “Shaheen Afridi should become captain in white ball cricket in case Babar Azam resigns.” This did not go down well with Yousuf who said that Babar is captain of the team because of his ability and reminded Malik that even Imran Khan won the World Cup on his third attempt as a captain. “Imran Khan captained in 1983 and 1987 and lost both times before winning on his third attempt in 1992. Any good player should be allowed to continue as a captain for a long time. He is the captain because he has the ability,” Yousuf said on Samaa TV. Reacting to Yousuf’s statement, the anchor of the sports programme on A Sports clarified that Malik’s comments had come in response to a fan question which was about who will replace Babar if he resigns after the World Cup. Additionally, Malik said that Yousuf would not have criticised him had he understood the question. “I have a great rapport with Yousuf. Whenever we meet, he always share a great time and I do respect him a lot. It was my point of view and I have every right to answer the way I want to a question asked to me. But had he understood the question and then listened to my answer, then there wouldn’t have been a discussion on this on any channel. But I really love Yousuf bhai,” Malik said.