'When Kohli scored 100, India forgot their Asia Cup campaign...': Ramiz Raja on Babar Azam's critics

Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja has lashed out at Babar Azam'scritics. Pakistan lost the Asia Cup final, losing to eventual winners Sri Lanka by 23 runs, whereas they conceded the seven-match T20I series, at home, to England 4-3. Meanwhile, Babar Azam -- who held the No. 1 spot in ICC T20I Rankings for long -- was woefully out of form in the Asia Cup, where he amassed only 68 runs in six outings, but returned to form with 285 runs in the England series (second-most overall). However, he is often slammed for his strike rate while batting at the top.

Ramiz, hence, made a bold Virat Kohli statement while slammingBabar's critics. "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 criticised 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,” the former captain said while speaking to Samaa TV during an interview.

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After the home T20Is loss to England, Pakistan will now play a tri-series with hosts New Zealand and Bangladesh as a part of their last-minute preparations before heading into the T20 World Cup. The Asian giants, and one-time winners, will open their campaign in the showpiece event, in Australia from October-November, on October 23 when they face India at the iconic MCG, Melbourne.

In last year's T20 WC, in the UAE, Babar & Co. had ended as the semi-finalists, losing to eventual winners Australia. How far will they go this time around? Only time will tell...