Umar Akmal breaks silence on viral Instagram story featuring Babar Azam

KARACHI: Pakistan's out-of-favour middle-order batter Umar Akmal on Friday issued a clarification over his recent Instagram story, featuring his cousin brother, Babar Azam, stating that his aim was never to compare.

Akmal, who last represented Pakistan in October 2019, shared a collage of pictures on his Instagram, comprising the pictures of him and Babar during the national team's ICC Men's T20 World Cup matches against Australia and England in 2026, respectively.

The pictures showed Akmal walking out to bat in the T20 World Cup 2014 match against Australia with the scoreboard reading at 25/2 and walking back with Pakistan comfortably placed at 180/5 in 19.1 overs as he made a blazing 94 off 54 deliveries.

The other set of pictures showed Babar taking his guard in Pakistan's most recent T20 World Cup 2026 fixture against England, with the scoreboard reading 32/2 and walking back in disgust after scoring a 24-ball 25 with the Green Shirts reeling at 73/3 in 10.5 overs.

Akmal's post quickly went viral on social media, with fans interpreting it to be a comparison between the two batters.

Meanwhile, as per the latest development, Akmal has issued a clarification, asserting that the post was not aimed at drawing a comparison but was instead shared to highlight that batting in the middle order does not suit Babar.

"I want to clarify that my aim was never to compare myself with Babar Azam. He is currently one of the top batters in the world, and I have great respect for his achievements," said Akmal on X, formerly Twitter.

"My intention was only to highlight that he is not naturally a middle-order batter in T20 cricket, as that position doesn't fully suit his batting style. There was no comparison — just a point about role suitability in the format," he added.

The 35-year-old further clarified that the post was a fan-made and was not edited deliberately in any way.