World Cup 2019: Wasim Akram slams Pakistan batsmen after their poor show against Windies

Windies annihilated Pakistan in their opening encounter of the ongoing World Cup 2019 by routing them to just 105 runs at the Trent Bridge on Friday. The Men in Green had no idea how to tackle the short-ball barrage employed by the Caribbean pacers and ended up losing wickets in a heap. While the team is being criticised from all the corners for their approach even the former Wasim Akram has lambasted them now.

After being sent into bat first on what was supposed to be a flat surface, Pakistan never looked comfortable and had no plan either. Apart from Fakhar Zaman who was unfortunate to see the ball shattering onto the stumps after hitting the grill of his helmet. As many as seven batsmen were dismissed off short deliveries and they seem to have been exposed at the start of the mega event itself.

After posting 105 runs on the board, Pakistan were never going to win the match and the Windies chased down the total in just 13.4 overs thanks to a half-century from Chris Gayle.

The batting shortcoming exposed

Wasim Akram, while speaking to Geo News, felt that playing on the wickets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi which have nothing in it has affected the Pakistan batsmen’s ability to play the short balls. He also lamented the fact that the team’s weakness is front of all the sides and they will also employ similar tactics going ahead in the tournament.

“We have been playing on flat wickets of Sharjah and Dubai for years and that’s why we struggle when we get short balls on wickets like this. Today the batting shortcomings were exposed, everyone has seen the match and people now know exactly where to bowl to Pakistani batsmen. After losing two initial wickets, players had to stay on wickets but they couldn’t. They must learn how to stay on wicket and seeing off the ball. In such conditions, you have to survive initial overs,” he said.

Moreover, Hasan Ali‘s reckless shot after coming in to bat at number nine has also come under the scanner. At 78/7, when he came out to bat, Mohammad Hafeez was looking good and Pakistan needed a brief partnership to at least weather the storm. But Hasan played an ambitious shot and was holed out inside the 30-yard at mid-on itself.

Talking about that dismissal, Wasim Akram felt the lower-order shouldn’t be blamed for the performance but Hasan Ali could’ve played sensibly as it was the need of the hour. “It looked like that he was chicken-hearted, when there was a set player at the other end then his job was to stay and rotate strike back to him there was not any need to slog and lose the wicket,” Akram further added.