'TV pe baith ke bolna easy hai': Babar Azam's smashing reply to 'Can't you play the role Virat Kohli does for India?'

Babar Azam getting compared to Virat Kohli is nothing new. Babar Azam getting grilled about his captaincy decisions is also quite a regular affair, especially when Pakistan are not playing their best cricket and they have been far from it in World Cup 2023. But both them - the Kohli comparison and questions on captaincy future - merged together and hurled at him in one go is not something that Babar deals with often. Pakistan do have a mathematical possibility of somehow sneaking into the World Cup semi-finals but mathematical is the keyword here. The equation is so adverse that chances are it will remain only a theory. Naturally, there were a lot of pointed questions asked to Babar during the pre-match press conference about what could turn out to be Pakistan's last appearance in this World Cup. Among those, there was this double-edged one.

"With regards to your captaincy, can't a cricketer like you play the role that Virat Kohli is playing in the Indian team? To prolong your career and focus more on cricket? Because sometimes it feels like this burden hurts your individual performance," asked a reporter to Babar on the eve of the Pakistan vs England match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

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Babar's reply was an elaborate one. He did not mention Kohli's name but he was fully aware were the criticism about his captaincy was coming from. The Pakistan captain, often an easy target of fans and experts back home, minced no words in hitting back at his critics. "TV pe baith ke mashwara dena asaan hota hai . Agar mashwara dena hai toh number toh sabke paas hi hai (If someone has to give me advice, everyone has my number. It is easy to give advice on TV. If you want to give me some advice, you can message me)," Babar said.