[Watch] Video of Babar Azam removing fan's hand from shoulder goes viral

A video of star Pakistan batter Babar Azam removing a fan's hand from his shoulder has gone viral on social media platforms. As per reports, the incident occurred while he was preparing for the Pakistan Champions One-Day Cup 2024 in which he will represent Stallions.

The 29-year-old came in for a lot of flak over his poor batting performance in the two-match Test series against Bangladesh at home, which Pakistan lost 2-0. In four innings, the right-handed batter registered scores of 0, 22, 31 and 11.

On Tuesday, September 10, he was again in the news for the wrong reasons as a clip of his interaction with a fan went viral. In the video, the star Pakistan batter is first seen obliging for a picture with a fan. However, when the latter attempted to place his arm around the cricketer's shoulder, Babar reacted by pushing his hand away.

Watch video below:

There have been contrasting reports over Babar's captaincy future. He led Pakistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup, but the team failed to qualify for the Super 8 round, suffering a shock loss to co-hosts United States in the group stage.

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Babar Azam has not scored a Test century since December 2022

While Babar has undoubtedly been one of Pakistan's standout batters over the last few years, he has been struggling for form in Test cricket of late. The 29-year-old last scored a century in Test cricket in December 2022, when he hit 161 against New Zealand in Karachi. In fact, the right-hander hasn't even registered a half-century in Tests since his three-figure score against the Kiwis.

Since the start of January 2023, the senior Pakistan batter has featured in eight Test matches and has managed only 317 runs at an average of 21.13, with a best of 41. Overall, he has played 54 Test matches and has scored 3962 runs at an average of 44.51, with nine hundreds and 26 half-centuries.

Looking at his numbers in while-ball cricket, the seasoned batter has featured in 117 ODIs and 123 T20Is, scoring 5729 and 4145 runs, respectively. He has 19 hundreds and 32 fifties in one-dayers and three tons and 36 fifties in T20Is.