The Pakistan team, led by Babar Azam, has been facing heavy criticism from the fans as well as the experts after their poor performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. The former Pakistan players have come down heavily on Babar for his captaincy and the PCB, seeking an explanation for the team’s downfall. Ahmed Shehzad joined the list of critics as he slammed Babar for fooling the people and accused him of creating bias within the team and having a squad filled with his friends.
Shehzad lashed out at the Pakistan team for losing against associate nations and teams like the USA under Babar’s captaincy. The repercussions of Pakistan’s slump in form were bad, as fingers have been pointed out at Babar, for his captaincy style and the way he is leading with the bat.
“Jab se Babar Azam captain hain, hum boht mediocre, sorry for using this word, teams se haar rahe hain (ever since Babar became captain, we have been losing to mediocre teams),” Shehzad said on a TV show, a video clip of which has gone viral on social media.
“The kind of progress that was going on, these things were on the cards and bound to happen some day.”
Pakistan suffered a major upset in their very first match against the USA as they lost in a Super Over thriller at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Texas on June 6.
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Shehzad slams Babar Azam
Shehzad minced no words as he called out Babar and Mohammad Rizwan for failing to help the team cross the line against India.
“There are players who are taking care of the team for the last 4-5 years, who take all the decisions. So wasn’t it their duty to take the responsibility of ensuring that the team chases down 120 to win such an important match against India?” Shehzad asked.
The Pakistani opening pair of Rizwan and Babar shared a 26-run stand while chasing 120 runs against India. Both the players gave away their wickets as Pakistan fell short of the target by 6 runs.
“Aapne B, C, D teams ke khilaaf perform kar ke logon ko hallucinate kiya hai aur pagal banaya hai (you guys have performaed against B, C, D teams and fooled the people),” Shehzad said. “Your salaries were hiked, PCB paid you to evolve yourself and your cricket…”
Shehzad also trained his guns towards Babar, almost mocking the Pakistan captain with reference to the word ‘king’ as he flashed a piece of paper carrying Babar’s stats in big tournaments.
“Your (Babar) scores in big competitions…your average is 27 and your strike rate is 112. And 1400 of your runs have come in a losing cause, which is at No. 3 in the world in that list. So these stats are of which king, tell me that? What should I do with this king who can’t win us the match?” Shehzad said.
“You have fooled the entire public. Aap apne dosto ke saath team bana rahe hain, dosto ko team ke andar rakh rahe hain (you are making a team with your friends, keeping your friends in the team),” said Shehzad.
Pakistan will take on Canada in their must-win clash of the T20 World Cup on June 11 in New York.
Source Agencies
