Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has questioned Pakistan for their depleting seam-bowling attack, an area that used to be their biggest strength in the past as well. Pakistan will take on England in their final 2023 World Cup league game at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday. They need a massive win to pip New Zealand for the final semi-final berth.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “When Naseem Shah got injured, everything was put on him, that how will it happen if Naseem is not there? He is a good bowler but you will have to manage. We used to say that fast bowlers fall when we shake a tree in Pakistan. Where have all the fast bowlers gone? Spin is totally missing.”
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He further added, “If we talk about batting, (Mohammad) Rizwan played well at the start but Babar (Azam) hasn’t played well in the entire tournament. Whenever he has played, he has played at almost a run-a-ball and we didn’t see any dominating knock, although these are good batting conditions. Fakhar Zaman was there at the start, then he wasn’t, and he played well when he came back. However, by the time he came, Imam-ul-Haq was out. Abdullah Shafique is playing and if we see down the order, the might was not seen.”
However, Babar Azam’s 282 runs in eight innings have come at 82.69. Mohammad Rizwan (359) and Abdullah Shafique (336) are the only Pakistan batters to cross the 300-run mark in the tournament so far. Aakash Chopra also believes Pakistan haven’t lived up to expectations so far as well.
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“The truth is that it has not been a very good tournament. I will be very honest, I had more expectations from this team. Maybe my expectations were wrong because the way they played the Asia Cup, you could figure out that this team is not playing modern-day cricket,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
