Published 19:09 IST, November 10th 2019
Shoaib Akhtar takes a dig at Pakistan's old school style of cricket
Shoaib Akhtar had slammed the Pakistan team for playing the 1980s style of cricket after their 2-0 loss against Australia in the recently concluded T20I series.
Shoaib Akhtar was gutted after Pakistan had lost the third and final T20I against Australia on Friday to lose the series 2-0. Pakistan, who are the top-ranked T20I side have failed to win a single series this year in the shortest format of the game. After registering 11 consecutive series wins, the Men In Green lost an away series against South Africa followed by a one-off T20I earlier this year before they were whitewashed by Sri Lanka at home.
Shoaib Akhtar slams Pakistan's style of cricket
The 'Rawalpindi Express' could not hide his disappointment and was very critical of the way the team had performed. He then went on to say that Pakistan are still playing the 1980s style of cricket.
''Pakistan needs to get up. The world has moved on but we (Pakistan) are still stuck to that age-old process of playing cricket. Pakistan is playing the 80s style of cricket. Pakistan cannot afford to play the 80s style of cricket now", said Shoaib Akhtar.
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Shoaib Akhtar takes a dig at Pakistan
Pakistan's tour to Australia was embroiled in controversy even before the team departed to the Down Under, with former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed being sacked and being replaced with Babar Azam as the T20 skipper. With the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) having issues with Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistan were forced to adopt a new approach - a youngster dominated side was picked for Australia's series. However, Pakistan's attempts to turn their fortunes failed miserably and Shoaib Akhtar who has been a staunch critic of the Pakistan side took to Twitter to take a dig at the number one T20 side. Taking to Twitter, Shoaib Akhtar cryptically indicated at Pakistan going down under the mighty Australians in their home ground.
Australia register a comprehensive win
It was a walk in the park for Australia after skipper Aaron Finch had won the toss and elected to bowl first. Premier Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc put the visitors on the backfoot with two wickets in two balls off his beautiful inswinging deliveries. He first trapped Pakistan skipper Babar Azam plumb in front of the wicket and then cleaned up wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan of the very next delivery to leave the Men In Green reeling at 15/2 before Imam-Ul-Haq followed in some time. Apart from Iftikhar Ahmed, none of the Pakistani batsmen could show any resistance. Ahmed played cameo innings of a 37-ball 45 as Pakistan managed to post 106/8 in their 20 overs. In reply, the Aussies got to the target without breaking a sweat riding on a 109-run opening stand between David Warner and Aaron Finch. The Aussie skipper remained unbeaten on a 36-ball 52 at a strike rate of 144.44 which included four boundaries and two maximums while Warner remained not out on a 35-ball 48 at a strike rate of 137.14 including four boundaries and three sixes as the hosts reached the target comprehensively in the 12th over with all 10 wickets in hand.
Updated 20:16 IST, November 10th 2019