Kamran Akmal, the former Pakistan keeper-batter, has lent support to ex-England captain Michael Vaughan, who had taken a dig at the Men in the Green team by saying England made a mistake by recalling its players from IPL 2024 for the T20Is.
England has removed its players from the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) for participating in this series. While the majority of the league stage of the tournament was over, captain Jos Buttler, Will Jacks, Phil Salt, and Reece Topley could have all played in the playoffs.
Salt might have played in the final, where his team, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to earn their third IPL title.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan stated that playing in the high-pressure environment of the IPL finals would have provided greater preparation for the team than playing a T20I series at home against Pakistan.
“Everybody knows the level of Pakistan cricket”- Kamran Akmal
The comment sparked controversy among Pakistan fans, however, former wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal has recently stated that he agrees with Vaughan, despite his “painful” opinion.
“Over the past few days, I have wondered why a former England captain is commenting and taking Pakistan cricket non-seriously. It has been a painful thought, but I think he was correct in his assessment.
Everybody knows the level of Pakistan cricket. We are losing against smaller teams like Ireland and in that sense Vaughan said that it is not a tough series. So the fault is ours. Had it been any other team like New Zealand, South Africa and India then Vaughan would not have said it,” he added. “We need to understand that in IPL, the best bowlers and batters are participating with crowds of 40 to 50,000. So it is tough cricket and quality cricket,” Akmal said on his YouTube channel.
England and Pakistan clashed in a series of 4 T20Is, out of which two were rained out and England crushed Pakistan in the remaining two T20Is.
Both the teams sacrificed playing warmup games in the USA and West Indies ahead of T20 World Cup 2024 for this series and while England got something out of it, Pakistan has been left with more questions than answers.
Also Read: T20 World Cup 2024: ‘ICC Have Made Schedule For Two India-Pakistan Games’ – Basit Ali