Social media can be cruel at times. You are the king at one moment, and before you know it, you are thudded into mud in the next. Nothing is permanent there; neither the glory nor the harsh treatment. Babar Azam, the poster boy of Pakistan cricket, is currently realising it the hard way. His prolonged lean patch across formats in the last 12 months has paved the way for countless trolls, derogatory memes, uncomfortable nicknames and now... fake retirement posts.

After Babar Azam had yet another disappointing outing against Bangladesh, managing only 31 and 11 in the second Test match in Rawalpindi, his fake retirement posts went viral on social media platform X.

The first came on Monday afternoon. The words used on the post were so akin to a top player's retirement announcement that it could fox even the most ardent cricket fan at first glance.

As the first post gained momentum, another one landed two hours later. This time from an account with more followers and an X premium subscription, which meant greater reach. The retirement post from 'Babar Azam - Parody' handle mocked the Pakistan white-ball skipper for preparing batting-friendly pitches during his tenure as the red-ball skipper to conjure runs.

Babar's poor form

Babar has been going through the worst phase of his international career in the last 12 months. He lost his ODI captaincy after Pakistan's poor show in the ODI World Cup in India last year. His batting form in ODIs and Tests dipped to never-before-seen lows - He has scored just 190 runs in 10 Test innings at an average of 19, while in ODIs, his average dipped to 34. He managed to score at an average of 38 during this period in T20Is, but his efforts didn't culminate in good results for the team. Pakistan were knocked out of the T20 World Cup from the group stages after losing to the USA.

Babar mustered up 126 runs at an average of 21 in the Australia tour last year. Before the T20 World Cup, Pakistan toured England to play four T20Is. In two matches, Babar scored 68 runs at an average of 34.00.

In the T20 World Cup, Babar once again was left exposed after falling short with his bat. In four matches, he garnered 122 runs at an average of 40.66. But he was heavily criticised for his below-par strike rate of 101.66.

In their ongoing series against Bangladesh, in four innings, Babar has produced just 64 runs from his bat. He would be keen to find his rich vein of form in Pakistan's upcoming series against England.

Despite the poor run, Babar found backing from former Australia speedster and the current Test head coach of Pakistan, Jason Gillespie.

"Babar is a quality player. He is a world-class player. He is very close. I feel it. I am confident that we are going to see Babar scoring some big runs very soon. He probably hasn't converted the start he has got," Gillespie said.

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