During his playing days, former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar was capable of scaring the best of batters with his pace.

After retirement, Akhtar has become an expert on the game, sharing views on his YouTube channel and with media outlets. He often becomes the talk of the town with his candid comments.

Fondly known as the Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akhtar is once again grabbing the headlines with his blunt statement.

This time, Akhtar has taken a veiled dig at the current Pakistan captain Babar Azam while praising Azam Khan, who has impressed and all with his exploits in the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL) season.

Speaking to Suno News, Shoaib also termed the Islamabad United wicketkeeper-batter as ‘captaincy material’ for Pakistan.

“I found Azam Khan as a responsible guy who can build the innings, not just slog. He spoke smartly in the interview as well, and it felt nice to hear him speak like that as he talked about his performance. When I was playing 20 years ago, I didn’t care how I spoke. But in today’s era, being in media is a part of your job. I can only indicate and pin-point for you, ‘this is a problem, please go and correct it. It’s for your own benefit’. He (Azam) looked like a captaincy material with the way he spoke,” Akhtar said.

Shoaib Akhtar also added that winning the ICC Player of the Year award didn’t mean everything. Notably, Babar was bestowed with same honour by the world cricket governing body in January this year.

“When Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shahid Afridi, and Abdul Razzaq used to play, they would say, ‘the whole ground and its crowd is mine. I control the atmosphere in this place’. And Azam was controlling that. That’s how you become a star. It’s not just about winning ICC Player of the Year awards, no no. The things Azam did… crowd backed him, he took their ownership. He was like, ‘I’m here to run the show’,” Akhtar remarked.