Netizens mercilessly trolled Babar Azam after Pakistan crashed out of the T20 World Cup following the washout of the game between the USA and Ireland in Florida this week.

After botching up their run-chase against India earlier in the event, Pakistan's fate was no longer in their hands and Babar Azam and his men needed certain things to go their way to qualify for the Super Eight. Ireland's victory over the USA was essential for Pakistan to earn a place in the Super Eight. However, it didn't happen as rain gods washed out the contest between Ireland and the hosts.

The abandonment of the clash between Ireland and the USA meant that the latter moved to five points, taking their tally beyond the Pakistani side's reach.

Even if Pakistan win their last group match, they would only move to four points, which is insufficient for Super Eight qualification.

Though Pakistan's exit from the T20 World Cup was confirmed on Friday, former players, including those from their country, believe that Babar Azam and Co lost the plot after their consecutive shocking defeats to the USA and India at the start of the high-profile biennial competition.

While their batters put up a subdued performance against the USA in their opener, the Pakistani batting line-up wilted under pressure to lose a close encounter against India after having choked in the second half of their run chase to finish at 113-7 in their allocated 20 overs. The Indians wrapped up a hard-fought six-run victory over their arch-rivals with pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah producing a stunning display of tearaway fast bowling with figures of 3 wickets for 14.

The legendary Wasim Akram ripped into Babar Azam and his boys after their shocking ouster from the T20 World Cup, urging the national selectors to “change the entire team” if they wished to see Pakistan performing better in ICC competitions.

“Congratulations to the USA, They've done amazingly well. When you talk about globalization of the game, this is it. USA qualified for the Super Eight, they deserve to be there. They defeated Pakistan, in their group match. For Pakistan, what's the plan? EK 601 (flight number) to Dubai, to their respective cities. From then, we will see what happens,” Wasim Akram posted on Instagram.

“Pakistani players think that if they don't perform well, the coaches will be sacked, and nothing will happen to them. It is time to keep the coaches and change the entire team,” a furious Wasim Akram demanded.

On the other hand, former England captain Michael Vaughan was critical of Babar Azam's captaincy during the T20 World Cup. He emphasized that Pakistan should have won the game against India, but Babar Azam's marshaling of his troops let the team down.

“I still don’t see him as a T20 captain. I see him as a Test and 50-over captain. In those two formats in which he excels as a player. In T20 cricket, his game is very good, a pure player, but he is not up there with the top 15 batters in the world in T20 cricket. I think there are better players than him up the order,” Michael Vaughan told Cricbuzz.

“But I don't want them to change it (captain) again. You assume they got to have some consistency. There's no point changing once again. Even if he is not perfectly suited to captain in T20 cricket, I do think for this period, its worth him staying consistent because the last thing Pakistan need is a bit more kamikaze, swapping in and changing and overreacting. I think most Pakistan fans will be realistic with this team's performance. They have actually not got a great team, at the minute, on paper, its just not a very good team. Its down to the coaches, selectors and the system back in Pakistan to try and give those in power (captain and coaches) to choose a pool of players,” he added.

Meanwhile, ex-Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi, a self-confessed fan of Babar Azam, also slammed his leadership during the T20 World Cup. He claimed that Babar Azam hasn't improved as a skipper in the last three and a half years and the Pakistan cricket team was suffering due to his inability to make proactive decisions on the field.

“Fellow cricket lovers on social media should criticize Babar's captaincy but consistent players like him are rare in Pakistan cricket. Babar's individual performances have been good. Yeah, it's true he hasn't been able to perform in the World Cup. I've always wished to see Babar emerge as a matchwinner like we talk about Virat Kohli. He wasn't a matchwinner from day 1 but he has developed himself,” Shahid Afridi said on his YouTube channel.

“Babar Azam is being criticized. It happens because he's the captain. I am an admirer of Babar (but) he's been given 3-3.5 years as captain and there hasn't been any eye-catching result nor there has been any improvement. The first question to the selection committee is that when he didn't show any improvement (before), (why) he was reappointed as captain? As a player we have never criticised Babar but only his captaincy. A leader's decision matters a lot – it can change the outcome of a match, a captain should be able to engage with players. So these are few things Babar has been unable to improve on,” Shahid Afridi concluded.