Former Pakistani pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar has said that Pakistan captain Babar Azam is still young and he is in his early days of captaincy as well. He stated that Babar couldn’t remain collected during the loss in the semi-final against Australia in the T20 World Cup 2021.
The veteran also praised the Australian side for using their maturity, experience and calmness to win the game. Howveer, Australia was reduced to 96-5 while chasing a total of 177 runs and needed 81 runs in the last 46 deliveries. Then Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade stayed strong in the middle and sealed the deal, adding 81 runs in just 40 balls.
Shoaib Akhtar, while reviewing the semi-final encounter, posted a video on his official YouTube channel, said: “You have to agree here that our (Pakistan) captain is young and new and in the end could not keep composed. On the other hand, Australia is a mature team and there they used their experience, culture, base to remain composed and did not get scared. Pakistan team, though, did not get scared but panicked.”
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Shoaib Akhtar also shared his fear that Pakistan may never get the chance again where they can register victories this easy and lift the T20 World Cup. He also believed that Pakistan should have won this World Cup.
Akhar reflected: “He (Babar Azam) is a new captain and I understand that but winning 5 out of 6 games, I thought this was Pakistan’s World Cup to win. This could have been won. We might not get such an easy chance ever again. We tried our best but the best was not good enough for yesterday. The better team won.”
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Notably, Pakistan was in sublime form prior to the semi-finals. They were the only team to remain unbeaten in the competition throughout the Super 12 stages as well. However, Shoaib Akhtar also praised the left-handed batsman Fakhar Zaman, who scored a 50 in just 31 deliveries.
“Fakhar Zaman is a good player and he played brilliantly against Australia but he does not rotate the strike in the middle overs. He remained stuck for 3-4 overs and was unable to rotate the strike. I think we should have scored 200 runs. Overall, Pakistan has done wonderfully well but I personally think that it could’ve been better,” Shoaib Akhtar concluded.
