On February 26, former Pakistani cricketer and Babar Azam’s cousin Umar Akmal shared a mysterious story from his Instagram account, which sparked widespread speculation among cricket fans on social media platforms. Akmal gave a clarification within 24 hours of the story.
Due to constant speculations and rumors, the ex had to take to Instagram Story to reveal what exactly he wanted to say. Akmal shared a photo collage of Babar and himself after Pakistan’s defeat against England in the Super 8 match of the T20 World Cup 2026.
Why the speculation between Babar Azam and Umar Akmal?
On 24 February, England, chasing 165 runs, defeated Pakistan by 2 wickets and 5 balls to spare. In this match, Babar Azam came to bat at number 4, and disappointed his fans again as he was out after scoring only 25 runs in 24 balls with two fours. Due to the slow pace of batting of the experienced batsman, his strike rate once again started being criticized. The ongoing T20 World Cup 2026 has been full of bad times for the batsman so far.
Pakistan’s great batsman Babar has so far scored 91 runs in six matches at an average of 22.75. Amid scrutiny of his batting and strike rate in T20Is, Umar Akmal’s Instagram story spread like wildfire on the social media platform. Through the story, the former cricketer tried to connect two different matches in one line – the recent England vs Pakistan match, and the 2014 Pakistan vs Australia encounter.
Same circumstances, but different results
Pakistan’s situation was the same in both the matches. Against England, the Green team lost by 2 wickets for 32 runs. In 2014, against the Australian team, Pakistan were at 25/2. From two almost identical situations, in one instance, Pakistan won, and in their latest match, they lost. In 2014, when Pakistan was lagging, Umar Akmal scored 94 runs on 54 balls to lead the team to victory.
Omar Akmal’s Instagram story. pic.twitter.com/lD37YHOWat
– Sherry. (@CallMeSheri1_) 26 February 2026
However, Babar failed to do so against England in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026. The right-handed batsman was out for 25 off 24 and Pakistan eventually lost the match.
While, most of the cricket fans assumed that the photo collage shared by Akmal was meant for comparison with the star batsman, Akmal cleared all the doubts in his latest statements. Akmal clarified that the Instagram story was not meant to draw a comparison between him and Babar, it was just a point about role suitability in the format.
Umar Akmal gave clarification
“I want to clarify that it was never my intention to compare myself with Babar Azam. He is one of the top batsmen in the world currently, and I have immense respect for his achievements. My intention was only to highlight that he is not a naturally middle-order batsman in T20 cricket, as that position does not entirely suit his batting style. There was no comparison – just a point about role suitability in the format”, Umar Akmal said on his ‘X’ post Wrote.
I want to clarify that my intention was never to compare myself with Babar Azam. He is currently one of the top batsmen in the world and I have great respect for his achievements. My intention was only to highlight that he is not a natural middle-order batsman in T20 cricket, because… pic.twitter.com/Agn6l8LVeq
– Umar Akmal (@Umar96Akmal) 27 February 2026
Read more: Jason Gillespie urges Babar Azam to have confidence in himself and attack
