Legendary seamer Shoaib Akhtar has reiterated his concerns regarding the Pakistani unit heading to the ICC T20I World Cup in Australia.
“I fear that this Pakistan team can go out of the world cup in the first round itself,” said the former quick on his youtube channel.
The renowned pacer who gave batsmen nightmares as he beat them for pace during his heyday substantiated his concern regarding the current crop of his beloved Pakistani team by pointing out the lack of depth and instability in the middle order.
“Pakistan middle order isn’t good. If the openers don’t perform, the middle order gets under pressure. This is not the way to go into a world cup if you want to win it. It is very sad”, said the 47-year-old.
Akhtar, who had issues with the team selection, expressed his frustration with the selector Mohammed Wasim and coach Saqlain Mushtaq after the team for the big event was announced.
“The problem was in the middle order but the selectors overlooked it and didn’t make any changes in the middle order”, the Rawalpindi Express had said a couple of weeks earlier.
Wasim came under severe scrutiny from Akhtar as the former pacer said “When the chief selector is average then only average decisions would be taken” taking aim at the selector.
He then went on to blast Mushtaq with his comments that roughly translate to “Saqlain last played cricket in 2002, I don’t want to say this as he is my friend, but I don’t think he has any idea about T20 cricket. I don’t think this is his forte”.
He also expressed his concern over batting coach Mohammed Yousuf’s status in the team.
“Mohammad Yousuf is not even in the team. Had he been there, how could our batting not perform? Yousuf is an asset in the dressing room, but I don’t know how much say he has in this team”, Akhtar said as he worried about his former teammate’s sway within the national team setup.
Akhtar focused on his fear that Pakistan might not stay in Australia long enough to play the knockout rounds with a team that doesn’t have real depth in the middle order.
“With this team, we might get knocked out in the first round itself. I am really scared as our batting has no depth.”
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