Pakistan’s newly-appointed ODI captain Babar Azam on Monday (May 18) slammed former cricketer Tanvir Ahmed for the latter’s suggetion that Babar should improve his English speaking skills.

Notably, several Pakistani cricketers, including former skippers Inzamam-ul-Haq and Sarfraz Ahmed have often been criticised and trolled on social media for their weak English language speaking skills in the post-match press conferences. Ahmed posted a Youtube video advising Babar to learn English and improve his overall personality and learn English to cope with the problem.

“Babar Azam also needs to improve his English, which is necessary. Whenever someone becomes a captain, he has to talk during the toss and post-match presentation. Plus, he will also give interviews on various channels when he tours different countries,” Tanvir said.

Tanvir, 41, who had played for Pakistan in in 5 Tests, 2 ODIs and 1 T20I, then faced flak on social media for his bizarre suggestion to Babar.

Babar responded to Tanvir’s advise and said, “I’m a cricketer, my job is to play cricket. I am not a ‘gora,’ who knows English completely. Yes, I am working on it, but you learn these things over a period of time, you can’t just suddenly learn it.”

Babar Azam about his Comparison with Virat Kohli & Solid Cover drive (reply) about criticism on his English (Language)

Well played

Video via PCB pic.twitter.com/ntzxioxgSi

— Abdul Ghaffar (@GhaffarDawnNews) May 18, 2020

Babar also talked about cricket after the coronavirus pandemic. “We know better than other teams how it feels to play without a crowd having played most of our cricket in Dubai in last 10 years. It’s not a great feeling for fans and it’s not great for us also,” he concluded.