With hosts Pakistan losing its fourth match against India in an ICC event with the six-wicket loss against India in Champions Trophy in Dubai on Sunday, it was also Pakistan’s second loss in the tournament and almost shutting the door for the hosts for the tournament. With fast bowlers like Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah only accounting for two wickets in the match, former Pakistan great Wasim Akram has lashed out the pace trio of Pakistan and said Pakistan cannot win any game with such kind of bowlers.
“Are you talking about fast bowlers? Fast bowlers for which Pakistan is very famous for. That fast bowlers factories come in Pakistan and whatever comes to mind. I will tell you the stats. Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is our main bowler. He has bowled 47 overs conceding 341 runs taking eight wickets at an average of 43. I am not talking of batting but bowling. Then Haris Rauf. Two matches out of five matches he was injured (Probably he thought who will play five matches, so get injured in two). Three wickets with an average of 52. Then Naseem Shah. 56 average and five wickets. Your three premier bowlers have average close to 50. You are not going to win any game unfortunately,” Akram said while sharing his thoughts on the show ‘Dressing Room’.
With India restricting Pakistan to a total of 241 on Sunday, it was the fourth time in the last ten ODIs between the two countries that Pakistan failed to cross the 250-run mark. Both Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah failed to take a wicket in the match and Akram also found the image of Shah throwing the ball to the wicket-keeper in the match as a perfect example of what is lacking in Pakistan players’ attitude. “There should be one more rule for the selectors. The one person, no matter how good he is, who does not have a throw should not be allowed to play white ball cricket. Naseem Shah throws like he is hitting in a fair. We were taught from great Javed Miandad, great Imran Khan and Mudassar Nazar that your job is to throw from third man like a bullet so that opposition should get to know that we are on the ball. We are on the money. And if I am throwing the first ball of the match like in a fair and the wicket-keeper, a lion’s kid (laughs), also stands there okay and doesn’t go close to the ball, these small things matter,” shared Akram.
Pakistan team management once again had shown faith in the likes of Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan apart from recalling Imam-ul-Haq in place of injured Fakhar Zaman apart from the same bowling unit, which suffered loss against New Zealand in the opening match of the tournament.
Akram’s long-time team-mate and compatriot Waqar Younis believes that Pakistan cricket needs ‘surgery’ to regain the past glory. “When we lost in the World Cup, Naqvi sahib (Mohsin Naqvi, PCB Chairman) said I will do the operation, You don’t do open heart surgery. When you do open heart surgery, then there is lots of blood. You do the surgery in a way that you let it remain closed and the surgery also happens. I think it is important to see who are the players who are capable of playing the modern way of cricket. We are behind the world. If one says this time is not right, then do the surgery post Champions Trophy. You see which of these kids can come in and then as Wasim bhai said, give them time. It’s an old disease and you will create a wound and it will take time to heal,” Younis said on the show.
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