Former captain and PCB chairman Ramiz Raja advised Pakistan captain Babar Azam and team management to select players based on merit, while former skipper Younis Khan slammed the Pakistan team’s body language against the arch-rivals India in the Super Four game of the Asia Cup 2023.
The Pakistani innings weren’t any better because Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj bowled with good swing and seam, and the Pakistani hitters couldn’t handle the high-quality fast bowling by the Indian pacers and Kuldeep Yadav picked 5/25 as Pakistan collapsed to 128 all out without Rauf and Naseem coming into bat. Pakistan’s loss to India in ODI cricket was marked by their largest run loss in ODI cricket.
Speaking to the media, Ramiz Raja urged the Indian team management to make a straightforward decision about Pakistan’s playing 11 for the forthcoming games and raised his concern regarding the form of Fakhar Zaman in the game.
“Babar should not just follow a straight line and decide against making changes in the line-up. The team management and Babar need to realise their love affair with Fakhar is not beneficial for the team as he is not in form at all,” Ramiz Raja said.
Former Pakistan skipper Younis Khan lambasted the body language of the Pakistan team in the game against India, as he felt that the team didn’t play well in the game. He asked Mohammad Rizwan to bat in accordance with the team’s needs rather than his personal preferences.
“Their body language indicated they had accepted defeat from the start and they didn’t play well at all as a team, Mohammad Rizwan should bat where the team needs him (to), not where he wants to bat,” Younis stated.
The Men in Blue were aggressive with the bat against the high-quality Pakistan bowling attack and the Babar Azam-led side was never in the mammoth chase on Monday, as they were bowled out cheaply for 128 runs, to fall short of India’s total by massive 228 runs.
Shaheen Afridi Got Frustrated And Angry At Himself – Shahid Afridi
Shahid Afridi believes that Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi looked frustrated after not being able to find a breakthrough in the powerplay against and urged the left-arm pacer to focus more on line and length rather more on the wickets.
“What is (being) seen is that against India when he (Shaheen) didn’t get an early breakthrough he got frustrated and angry at himself.
“He always does this when he can’t get early wickets. The thing is that in international cricket his main focus should be on line and length when they are in the right spot the wickets will come automatically. He has a lot of cricket ahead of him and he has to plan out his career properly,” Shahid Afridi said.
Shaheen Afridi did exceedingly well for Men in Green during the group-stage match against India, finishing with an impressive figure of 4-35 but failed to make an impact for the team in the Super 4 stage of the tournament and the pacer will look to turn things around for the team in the must-win game against Sri Lanka.