ICC World Cup 2019: Shoaib Akhtar Takes A Dig At Sarfraz Ahmed's 'Brainless' Captaincy

Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar has slammed current skipper Sarfraz Ahmed following his poor leadership against India at the Old Trafford in Manchester. India kept their winning record going as they beat Pakistan by 89 runs via DLS method to secure their seventh victory against the arch-rivals in the World Cup.

Akhtar takes a dig at Sarfraz

Sarfraz Ahmed won the toss and elected to bowl first knowing that their batting line-up is not that great. Besides, Pakistan doesn’t have a good history of chasing totals right from the inception of limited-overs cricket. Indian batsmen dominated from the word go and put on a massive total of 336 runs on the board. Chasing such a mammoth total, Pakistan batters succumbed to pressure as the middle-order once again crumbled to hand Virat Kohli & Co an easy win.

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The poor decisions by the Pakistan skipper didn’t go down well with Shoaib Akhtar who came hard at Sarfraz Ahmed. From calling Sarfraz brainless, the former cricketer also questionned his tactics during the game.

“I don’t understand how can a captain be so brainless, couldn’t Sarfaraz think that we don’t chase well. Square of the wicket is dry, the wicket is not wet. Knowing the fact and your strength is not batting its bowling,” Akhtar said on his Youtube channel.

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According to Shoaib Akhtar, winning the toss was a crucial ingredient of the game, and half the match was won had Sarfaraz decided to bat first. However, the wicket-keeper batsman chose to bowl first, which handed the game to the Indias, feels Rawalpindi Express. Akhtar also took a dig at the management for having no proper plan in place to defeat opponents.

“Now when you had won the toss, you had won half the match there. But what did you do? You tried that we should not win this match. Yet again, brainless captaincy, utterly stupid management,” he added.

In conclusion, Shoaib Akhtar also criticised the batsmen for not making use of the conditions, unlike their Indian counterparts. Pakistan have managed to win only one of the five matches they have played so far. They need to turn things quickly to keep their chances of making it to the top four floating.