Ramiz Raja Targets Virat Kohli to defend Babar Azam and Rizwan amidst severe criticism

Pakistan and England were, recently, involved in a nail-biting seven-match T20I series. Both the team fought hard but it was England, who had the last laugh, winning the series by 4-3.

After the end of the first six games, the series was leveled at 3-3 . England put in a brilliant performance in the final match to take the trophy home. There is no denying that Pakistan also gave their all and won hearts with special performances throughout the series.

However, despite that, the fans have been critical of the team’s performance. Skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, in particular, have received a lot of flak for thier poor strike rates.

Amidst that, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Ramiz Raza has come out in defense of both the players and even involved Virat Kohli in his argument.

Former Pakistan cricketer said that when Virat Kohli scored a century in the Asia Cup 2022, the Indian fans were over the moon and didn’t even pay the head that the team fared poorly in the tournament. In contrast, Pakistan fans criticize their captain for his strike rate even after he scores a hundred.

“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 criticized 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,” he said.

Pakistan will next be part of a Tri-Series, alongside New Zealand and Bangladesh, starting 7th October 2022.