Cricket- 'It's a shameful performance': Shoaib Akhtar criticises Babar Azam and Co. after England whitewash
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Shoaib Akhtar has expressed his disappointment with the performance of Babar Azam and Co. and called it "shameful". He went on to criticise the Pakistan Cricket Board and called it "average".
Pakistan suffered a 3-0 whitewash against England after losing third and final against Stokes and Co. at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Several former Pakistan cricketers were disappointed that a full-strength Men in Green could not beat an English team that was assembled just a couple of days before their first team was isolated due to a coronavirus outbreak.
Shoaib Akhtar has expressed his disappointment with the performance of Babar Azam and Co. and called it "shameful". He went on to criticise the Pakistan Cricket Board and called it "average".
“It's a shameful performance. Our board is average. It brings average people, the management is average so obviously, they are going to build an average team. You can’t expect extraordinary things from average people. It’s wrong for you to expect.
“Crowd are coming to the ground but after watching such performances, the fan following will never grow. There is no star to inspire the youngsters. Then how can you bring the next Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi or Wasim Akram? You have to build brand,” Akhtar said on his YouTube channel.
After a disappointing show in the first two ODIs, Pakistan put up a strong batting show in the third One Day, with skipper Babar Azam scoring his career-best 158, which is also the most by any Pakistan player against England and posted a string 331 at the loss of 9 wickets.
However, they miserably failed to defend the total and England, with the help of James Vince's maiden ton, easily chased the target within 48 overs with three wickets remaining.
“Why this England team is doing so much better than us? Our mindset after we lose a couple of wickets is to bat steadily, build partnerships and then only try and attack in the last 10 overs. This is 70s cricket. We are stuck in the 70s. England say even if we are bowled out in 40 overs we will make sure we get 300. Every England batsman that walked in, kept the scoreboard moving and it was not mindless slogging. It was methodical hitting, there was rotation of strike. But we are playing 70s cricket because our mindset is like that, we don’t want to improve,” Akhtar said.
“Pakistan cricket is in a serious situation. They are in treacherous waters. It’s a very hopeless situation for PCB and Pakistan. I don’t know what the authorities are thinking but it’s a very hopeless situation. I’m not saying because I need a job but I’m saying this because I’m hurt. I played this game for my country. I ran in and I made sure people get value for their money. And they did that. Unfortunately, I’m not getting value for money from this team. This is not defendable, this is unexpected. This must be looked into,” he said.
Babar Azam and Co. will now take on England in a three-match T20I series starting from July 16.