World Cup 2019: Shoaib Akhtar clairifies his ‘fitness’ statement on Sarfaraz Ahmed

The Pakistan team had come under immense criticism after the way went down against the Windies. The Men in Green were blown away for just 105 by the Caribbeans after which a lot of questions were raised on the team. The former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar had gone on to slam the skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed over his fitness. Though he backed the team to come good as the tournament goes ahead.

Pakistan brought their unpredictability to the fore once again as they faced the hosts England on Monday at Trent Bridge. First, they managed to post a mammoth total on the board and then made the ball talk on a flat surface to win the game by 14 runs. It was an extremely close contest and the win is certainly a perfect answer to all the critics. Having said that, the Sarfaraz Ahmed-led side will have to be consistent in their trade going forward.

Shoaib Akhtar was attacked by Moin Khan for his remarks over Sarfaraz which led to the former coming out with clarification with his statement. Shoaib claimed that the captain should look apart from the team which is why he criticised the Pakistan captain.

“This is the World Cup. He needs to look fit and ripped. He needs to look apart from the rest of the players as the team looks towards their captain for inspiration,” the 43-year-old said in a video on his Youtube channel.

Shoaib slams Moin Khan

Moin Khan had come down hard on Shoaib Akhtar for criticising Sarfaraz Ahmed. The former wicketkeeper-batsman reminded the Rawalpindi Express of his own fitness during his playing days and felt the pacer would’ve picked more than 400 wickets had he been sincere with the team.

Hitting back at him, Shoaib termed Moin as an extremely poor captain and made some allegations against him while also calling him a poor wicket-keeper. Shoaib Akhtar also reminded his former teammate that he has picked more than 400 wickets in his international career and how he won matches and series for Pakistan.

“A former captain [Moin Khan] said that I would have taken 450 wickets if I was sincere with Pakistan. Let me remind him that I already have that many wickets in my international career and I have single-handedly won many series for my country, more than you could dream of. Secondly, if you were sincere then you could have taken off your gloves and made way to accommodate Rashid Latif who was a better player and wicketkeeper than you,” Shoaib further said.

Here’s the video: