Babar had earlier said that he wasn't consulted by the PCB before making sweeping changes to the squad.
Legendary pacer Wasim Akram has fiercely ridiculed Babar Azam's leadership, bluntly asking if the Pakistan captain was in England "to sell chickpeas" if he truly had no knowledge of the PCB's mid-tour squad overhaul.
Following crushing defeats in the opening two Tests at Leeds and Lord's, the PCB released seven players from the squad, including senior figures like Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha. Along with player changes, red-ball head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul were relieved of their duties.
The white-ball coaching staff, led by Mike Hesson, was brought in on short notice to take charge of the third and final Test at Edgbaston. The revamped squad featured Saim Ayub, Abdullah Fazal, and five uncapped players.
Addressing media on the eve of the Edgbaston Test, Babar explicitly cited that the wholesale squad changes was an absolute surprise to him.
“I was not consulted. It was news to me as well. I only found out about all these things later. PCB made the decisions, so they can explain it to you better,” Babar told reporters.
Speaking at a charity event on Sunday (September 20), Akram expressed deep frustration over the leadership void. He argued that a captain must stand by his team, firmly stating that if Babar disagreed with the sweeping changes, he should have stepped down from captaincy immediately after the second Test and played purely as a batter.
“Babar Azam said he did not know. If you don’t know, then what were you doing here? Were you here to sell chickpeas?" Akram asked.
“As a player or as a person, I believe that if your leader or captain does not stand by you, you cannot give 100 per cent," he added.
Akram also opined that Babar should either not have accepted PCB’s offer to replace Shan Masood as Test skipper, or quit the captaincy after the chaotic turn of events in England
“I do not want to blame anyone, and I could be wrong as well. But in my opinion, Babar should not have taken the captaincy. All of this was unnecessary… My suggestion is that after the second Test, Babar should have said that he would play only as a player," he remarked.
The mid-tour purge didn't result in a change of fortunes for Pakistan as Babar Azam’s men lost the Edgbaston by eight wickets to concede the series 3-0 to England.