‘The team is looking divided’ – Shoaib Akhtar suspects internal turmoil in Team India amidst poor show in T20 World Cup 2021
India are yet to win a game in the Super 12 and are in a must-win position going into their last three matches.
Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar reckoned that not everything is right in the Indian camp of late. The Men in Blue have had a disastrous campaign in the T20 World Cup 2021, having lost both their matches in the Super 12. To start with, Pakistan defeated them by 10 wickets after which New Zealand thrashed them by eight wickets on Sunday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Akhtar feared that there’s tension in the Indian dressing room amidst their lacklustre performance in the World Cup. However, the Rawalpindi Express also said that regardless of how India perform in the mega event, their skipper Virat Kohli deserves enough respect for contributing whole-heartedly to Indian cricket.
Criticism is important because they played bad cricket, says Shoaib Akhtar
“Why I can see that there are two camps within the team? One is with the Kohli and one against Kohli. It’s crystal clear. The team is looking divided. I don’t know why this is happening. Maybe it’s because of his last T20 World Cup as a skipper. Maybe he made wrong decisions, which is true. But he’s a great cricketer, and we have to respect him,” Akhtar was quoted as saying in Sportskeeda.
Team India was greeted with severe brickbats following their loss at the hands of the Black Caps. The 46-year-old Akhtar mentioned that he wasn’t happy with the Indian players’ attitude after their team lost the toss. The veteran said that India didn’t have a proper game-plan against the Black Caps due to which they kept sliding down the barrel in the match.
“Yes, criticism is important because they played bad cricket against New Zealand and had the wrong attitude. Yesterday, after they lost the toss, everyone’s heads were down,” he stated.
“They had no idea whatsoever. India, you only lost the toss by that time, not the whole match. They were just present there, and had no game-plan whatsoever,” Akhtar added.
India are next scheduled to cross swords with Afghanistan on Wednesday, November 3 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. They don’t have room for errors as a defeat will see them knocked out of the World Cup.
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