Akhtar terms Pakistani cricketers as ‘chicken-hearted’

Shoaib Akhtar, the former Pakistan speedster, is extremely disappointed with the national team’s performance in the first Test of the three-match series against South Africa and has labeled the Pakistani cricketers as ‘chicken-hearted’. The Proteas defeated the Green Shirts by a massive margin of 211 runs in the est, taking an important lead of 1-0 in the series and look favourites to outclass the visitors in the remaining two encounters as well. There was always a doubt about Pakistan’s ability to cope with the threat posed by one of the most lethal bowling attacks of the globe in the presence of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel. Having done well to restrict the hosts to 253 in their first innings, Pakistan’s batting line-up collapsed like ‘a house of cards ‘on day two of the match, being bowled out for merely 49 runs in their first innings. The ‘Rawalpindi Express’ was all praise for Steyn, who grabbed 11 wickets in the match to secure a handsome victory for his country. Akhtar predicts a sterner test of Pakistan’s inexperienced batting line-up in the second Test at Cape Town and feels that the pitch will be more in favour of the seam bowlers. “Pakistan players are chicken-hearted. Dale Steyn bowled his heart out. His intention was commendable,” the former pacer added. “The pitch in Newlands will be even harder and don’t expect any spin on it. We lack stalwarts. We don’t have brave batsmen like Inzamam, Miandad, Yousuf or Saeed Anwar. Our batsmen can’t even bat out a session or see off the new ball.” Akhtar slammed the sloppy dismissal of Nasir Jamshed in the second innings, after the left-hander had scored an impressive 46. The former cricketer is of the view that in order to be a regarded as a world-class player, Jamshed needs to deliver the goods in the longer format of the game, which is the ultimate test of a player’s ability. don’t become a star by getting runs in limited overs’ cricket. Test cricket is the real deal,” he added.