Sad to see Pakistani players not getting a chance to play in the IPL: Shoaib Akhtar

Former Pakistan pace bowling great, Shoaib Akhtar expressed his disappointment on Twitter on Friday that Pakistan players are no longer allowed to showcase their talent in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Shoaib shared an image of him carrying Bollywood superstar and KKR team owner Shah Rukh Khan after a match-winning performance against Delhi Daredevils (DD) for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) during the inaugural 2008 edition of IPL.

“Really enjoyed my time in IPL and in Kolkata. Sad to see Pakistani players are not able to showcase their talent,” the caption read.

Really enjoyed my time in Ipl and in Kolkata Sad to see Pak players are not able2 showcase their talent
1day.. pic.twitter.com/ykOVSYMcxN

— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) May 13, 2016

Shoaib had picked up four wickets in his spell in the match. He got the wickets of Virender Sehwag (0), Gautam Gambhir (10), AB de Villiers (7) and Manoj Tiwari (9) in that match and led his side to victory. Sehwag was caught behind trying to drive a good length delivery on the up, whereas Gambhir and de Villiers went out to short pitch deliveries. Shoaib was on a roll by then and trapped Manoj Tiwari in front of the wickets with a beautiful in-swinging delivery. That was one of the moments where the Eden crowd roared “Shoaib Shoaib..”.

Pakistani players featured only in the first season of the IPL. Other than Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Younus Khan, Umar Gul, Muhammad Asif, Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt had also been a part of the inaugural edition of the IPL.

Watch the match winning performance here:

Also check out – Watch: MI Paltan share their superstitions on Friday the 13th