Extremely disappointed by Pakistan’s loss in a group B fixture of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 against South Africa, Shoaib Akhtar, the former fast bowler, hopes that the national team will beat India in their last pool match.
Having won the toss, AB de Villiers, the Proteas’ skipper, opted to bat first. Thanks to a superb 81 by Hashim Amla, South Africa posted 234 runs on the board for the loss of nine wickets in their allotted 50 overs.
It turned out to be enough for Pakistani batsmen, who never found any momentum in their innings and managed to score just 167 runs before being bowled out in the 45th over.
While talking to a private television channel in Pakistan, the former fast bowler, expressed that the Green Shirts can restore some pride only by beating the arch-rivals, India. Akhtar wants Asad Shafiq to replace Imran Farhat in the playing-11.
He said, “Pakistan will have to beat India to save their face. Our players click at the right time and I am hopeful that they will overcome India.Imran Farhat should be dropped and Asad Shafiq should be back. Either Kamran or Hafeez should open with Nasir.”
Pakistan and India will be up against each other on Saturday at Birmingham. Taking into account Pakistan’s form in the tournament so far, the Men in Blue will surely start as firm favourites.
The Rawalpindi Express feels that Saeed Ajmal is one of the most important players of the national team and hopes that the off-spinner remains injury-free in future. Akhtar also believes that the presence of Shahid Afridi in the squad could have made a difference for the Green Shirts.
“The last thing Pakistan want is to get Saeed Ajmal injured. He is also a human. That day, we will be doomed,” said the former pacer. “Had Shahid Afridi been here, he would have scored more runs than our batsmen and taken more wickets than our bowlers.”
Afridi, the former Pakistan captain, has miserably failed to deliver the goods with either bat or ball for the national team in recent times, which is the reason why he was dropped for the all-important event.
Former Pakistan fast bowler minced no words in stating that the country’s cricket structure needed a complete overhaul.
“We shouldn’t be surprised by these results because we neither have quality batsmen nor bowlers and the reason for this is, we are not producing quality talents because of an inapt and mismanaged cricket structure,” he said.
Akhtar said since the time he started playing domestic cricket he had seen a lot of mismanagement.
“I came up because of my will to achieve something and not because of this system. Our cricket system is about compromises. Be if selection or other things matters. The best don’t get chance properly. What was the logic in dropping experienced player Abdul Razzaq for such an important event,” he asked.
