Shoaib Akhtar slams Sarfaraz Ahmed’s ‘brainless’ captaincy while criticizing the Pakistan Team after their loss against India at Manchester
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Pakistan received a heavy blow against their arch-rivals India after they handed them a 89-run defeat (DLS method) at The Old Trafford Ground, in Manchester on Sunday. The Cricketing fraternity expected it to be quite a humdinger of a contest considering the hype which was created around.
Pakistan’s ordinary display of all-round Cricket did not go down well among the Pakistan fans, and former fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar too was not impressed at all with what he witnessed. He, in fact slammed the entire Pakistan Cricket Team, particularly their skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, terming him as a brainless captain after the defeat. Earlier too, after Pakistan’s loss against West Indies in their opening match of the tournament, the ‘Rawalpindi express’ had vented his frustration on the Pakistan skipper primarily for his lack of physical fitness.
What did Shoaib Akhtar say?
Terming Sarfaraz as a brainless captain, Akhtar was not happy with the fact that he opted to bowl first at the Old Trafford ground on Sunday. He slammed the wicket-keeper batsman for nor assessing the conditions properly, and opined that the decision to bowl first costed him the match.
As per him, Pakistan committed the same mistake which India did in the final of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy (by bowling first). It is worth mentioning that Virat Kohli had also opted to bat bowl first after winning the toss in the Champions Trophy final match. While Pakistan had posted a total of 338 in that match, India smashed almost the same number of runs- 336 to be precise in the Sunday clash at Manchester.
He also opined that the present Pakistan team is not good at chasing and even if they’d put on a total of 260 on the board, the score board pressure in a World Cup match, would have actually benefited them.
Hassan Ali concentrates only on earning contracts for PSL
He also came down heavily on the Pakistani bowling, particularly on their pacer Hassan Ali who went for 84 in his 9 overs, making him the mos expensive bowler in an India vs Pakistan World Cup match. Terming him a T20 player, he criticized him for concentrating on earning heavy contracts for the different franchises of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), instead of focusing on his national duties.
Paksitan’s best batsmen in the limited overs format off-late also faced the Akhtar axe, as he termed him an ‘overrated’ batsman. As per Akhtar, the present No.1 T20 batsman has not played a single match-winning knock when the team needs it the most.
Lastly, he blamed the entire Pakistan Team management, terming them as clueless in terms of deciding what is in best interest for the team. Pakistan legend, Wasim Akram too showed concerns for the team management, as he was not happy with the fact that the responsibility of running the management has been given to a journalist.
