'There Is Only One Sachin Tendulkar And There Is Only One Virat Kohli'- Kamran Akmal EXCLUSIVE On Babar Azam, Pakistan In ICC World Cup 2023, And World Cup Semi-Finalists

Published - 27 Oct 2023, 11:16 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:21 AM

Kamran Akmal Virat Kohli Babar Azam
Kamran Akmal Virat Kohli Babar Azam. Image Credits: Twitter

“Pakistan – a force to reckon with this World Cup” was a common headline ahead of the ICC World Cup 2023. If you would’ve asked any cricket lover ahead of the tournament, who will make it into the semi-finals? He surely would’ve named Babar Azam’s Army as one of the sure-shot picks.

A resounding welcome in India followed by two thrashing victories against Netherlands and Sri Lanka, where they registered the highest chase in the World Cup, justified the headlines. Two big victories in the first two games were a perfect start for Men in Green on their tour to India.

However, the journey from joy to agony didn’t take long. Hyderabad treated Pakistan well, Ahmedabad was exactly the opposite. Over 1 lakh people came to witness the India vs Pakistan game at Narendra Modi Stadium, which was packed with blue. There was hardly anything green in the stands, particularly because of visa issues of Pakistan fans and media personnel.

Pakistan started pretty well with the bat and that ushered a pin-drop silence among the electrifying crowd of Ahmedabad. That little passage of play brought smiles on the faces of many sitting back at home. But soon the coin flipped and Babar’s Army was in the doldrums.

Poor shot selection coupled with pressure from the crowd and some quality bowling from India rattled Pakistan for just 191 runs. The belief to make a match out of such a small target was also shattered as the ‘best bowling lineup’ was on their knees, courtesy of the class of Indian captain Rohit Sharma.

On the back of a 7-wicket thrashing, Pakistan moved to Bangalore for the clash against Australia. But the demons from India’s game came to haunt them. Australia, who were under pressure as well, brought out their best and did the carnage on Babar Azam’s army. With two big defeats under their belt, it was expected that they would make a comeback as their next clash was against Afghanistan, slightly weaker than India and Australia.

But as it turned out, it was a heartbreak for them as they lost to Afghanistan as well. On a pitch, that was expected to be slow but wasn’t, they got 282 runs. Their bowling failed drastically as well as they couldn’t pick wickets and lost the game by 8 wickets. The defeat has shattered them by all ends and they have come under pressure.

Pakistan is also subjected to a lot of criticism after the loss to the low-ranked Afghanistan team. The fitness of the players along with the leadership of Babar Azam has come under scrutiny as well. But there’s a saying “A wounded lion is more dangerous than a hungry lion”

With the kind of comebacks Pakistan has staged in various ICC events, one cannot write them off. The Babar Azam’s men would be eager for a comeback but flaws that are there, they still have no answers to it. Things can get bad to worse for them if they don’t rectify what they lacked in the last few games.

A loss here would mean half curtains for their chances of semi-finals but a winning run could even see them in the playoffs. As Pakistan are in search of answers for a lot of things in this World Cup, we got the opportunity to speak to one of the greats of the game Kamran Akmal.

In an exclusive interview with Cricket Addictor, Kamran Akmal talked about Pakistan’s chances ahead in the tournament, their poor performances so far, India’s dominating run in the World Cup, and much more.

Here are excerpts from the interview with Kamran Akmal

Pakistan came as a favourites in the ICC World Cup 2023 but the losses against India, Australia, and Afghanistan seemed to have opened them up. Where do you see their campaign going?

I don’t think Pakistan was ready for the World Cup. We weren’t tested ahead of the tournament and instead, we created a lot of hype for our team and players on social media. Yes, we won games in the build-up to the World Cup but we didn’t win against good teams. When you play against big teams, and win against them, ahead of the World Cup, that’s the real preparation like other teams did.

We were getting happy after defeating small teams like the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, and West Indies, who didn’t even qualify for the World Cup, and Australia and New Zealand, who weren’t playing their full-strength teams. Our team wasn’t tested at all and had we been tested, it would’ve been a different story for Pakistan in the World Cup. The management is to be blamed for this.

They didn’t have a rotation policy, the workload of the players wasn’t managed, and players were sent to play franchise cricket and the result of that is visible in the ongoing ICC event. When you go into multinational events without preparations such results are bound to happen. As a cricketer, I was expecting such results to come because if you see other teams are fully prepared and aim to win the World Cup. Some of the decisions related to the selection of our team of late have been based on favorites because of which, these results are coming. It hasn’t been a surprise for me.

There’s a saying “Lose the tournament but don’t lose against India/Pakistan”. Where do you rate Pakistan’s performance against India, what do you think went wrong for them?

Pakistan isn’t playing modern-day cricket like other teams are. We haven’t left our comfort zone and haven’t thought out of box things. The whole world is waiting for India vs Pakistan. We have played a lot of cricket against India and it’s the biggest match, which makes stars. When you play with a team that has no planning, no World Cup camps in the build-up, and had horrendous outings in the Asia Cup, how can you beat a world-class team like India?

I feel Pakistan would’ve faced the same humiliation had it been any other team apart from India. They are themselves responsible for the current situation of the team. You win games when you are bold, you have match awareness and, a game plan. I will say players are playing for their survival and aren’t playing for the team, which is why we lost against India. Australia and India are big teams, we have always won in the last overs against Afghanistan, so how can you expect to win against big teams like India and Australia?

What do you make of PCB’s complaint to ICC related to crowd antics in Ahmedabad during the IND vs PAK game? And also Mickey Arthur’s ‘Dil Dil Pakistan not being played in the stadium’ statement.

See, the World Cup is happening in India and there’s a global event your thinking should be global too. I will just say we also played in India and we received a lot of love from the fans. When host nations play, it’s obvious that they will get the majority of support. When we used to play in India, similar thing used to happen and it isn’t a thing to mind.

Mickey Arthur’s statement was just to divert the attention from the team’s poor performance. I would call it immature statements. The Indian government also need to see a few things. Half of the tournament is done and our media persons are yet to receive visas, which shouldn’t have happened. As far as Mickey is concerned, it was very immature of him to say those things. He doesn’t deserve to be Pakistan’s Director of Cricket.

Performances don’t come with some such things. We won the series in India in 2004, gave a tough fight in 2006, and would’ve never done something like this. Why are management and players there if we can’t overcome pressure? Fans won’t come to bat and ball, players need to deliver. Even if we lose at least play good cricket, give a tough fight. Pakistan didn’t play good cricket and is focusing on such statements, which isn’t good.

Okay, PCB lodged an official complaint, Mickey Arthur gave such statements, but at first, questions should be raised about the team’s performance. PCB should ask Mickey why he gave such statements. I don’t get why he said such things. Pakistan played in Hyderabad and Chennai as well, they got good support there, so I don’t think there’s a need to make such statements.

India on the other hand has started to fire in all three departments at the same time. Do you see them lifting the World Cup trophy on 19th November?

See, only if India plays their worst cricket then some other team will lift the World Cup. Currently, they are perfect in everything and they deserve all the credit for it. I said one year ago that India would come fully prepared with all the planning for the World Cup and it’s visible as they have won five out of their five games. It takes a lot to make a team, when you are in a particular seat, you look at the whole country, the team not yourself and your friends, which unfortunately is happening in Pakistan cricket.

A lot of credit for this goes to Sourav Ganguly as he changed the dynamics of Indian cricket 15-20 years ago. He took the Indian team to great heights, brought a new mentality to the team and completely changed the approach of the team. After that MS Dhoni was ready under him and he lifted ICC trophies. It’s a great achievement for India that they got two great captains.

Once the T20 World Cup 2022 was over, Indian ODI players were kept aside to keep them fresh for the current World Cup. This is part of great planning and today you are seeing the results of that, you are dominating. The biggest thing is Virat Kohli is looking in a completely different league. He has single-handedly won games for India and has smashed 48 tons. When great Sachin Tendulkar scored 49 hundreds, I thought no one would ever reach close to him as even a team together doesn’t have this many centuries.

But Virat Kohli has done it. With the way he’s performing along with Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and others, there’s great planning in the team. I feel if they don’t win the World Cup this time, it’ll be tough for them to win in the future. They are a big team, have conditions in their favor, and if okay with the same mentality, no one can stop them.

There’s no doubt the ability of Babar Azam but do you really see him as a big match player especially with him not being able to fire in big tournaments and games? Do you think his comparison with Virat Kohli is fair?

See, there’s only one Sachin Tendulkar, there’s only one Inzamam-Ul-Haq, same is the case with Virat Kohli, there’s no one like him. Comparing him with any other player is the biggest disgrace to his talent and his performance. As far as Babar Azam is concerned, he is not in good form it’s temporary as class is permanent. The biggest thing is when you are at the highest post, you need to make good decisions, take the team along with and create the team.

If you think only about yourself, and your friendship then you will lack, which is visible in Babar Azam currently. There’s no doubt about his batting but he needs to work on these things. There’s an added pressure of captaincy when the team doesn’t perform. Also, India has thrashed them and the effect of that is visible as they lost two back-to-back.

All these things count as who’s mentally strong and Babar needs to work on this. Just like India has got Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and Virat Kohli, Pakistan has got the gift of Babar. He himself can utilise this and he can do this by thinking from the team’s perspective. He needs to think about how to lift his team. If he learns all this his performances will lift himself.

Not only him but the whole team management remains in ego because of which we are witnessing such things. I have never seen a team lose back-to-back games in the World Cup. We lost against the second-weakest team in the tournament. We lost against those who played the majority of cricket in Pakistan. Full credit goes to Afghanistan for the way they played. Their cricket is going up while we are going down.

Ravi Shastri recently made a bold remark saying that Shaheen Afridi is a good bowler but not Wasim Akram so people shouldn’t hype him and treat him like all normal bowlers. What do you make of this?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Ravi Shastri is a big name in World cricket, he’s a big commentator. Everyone listens when he talks as he talks about what’s happening. Comparing Shaheen Afridi to Wasim Akram is like comparing Virat Kohli to Babar Azam. The comparison is unfair, it’s all because of social media that’s it.

You can’t take a wicket against Afghanistan with a new ball, yes you picked a wickets haul against Australia but it came when the batters were hitting. To become match-winners and great bowlers, you need to win every second and third game for the team.

When Shaheen picks 300 wickers then we can compare him with Wasim Akram and then we can say he has reached that level. Yes, Shaheen is not World Class yet but he’s also not an average bowler. He’s Pakistan’s best bowler currently and he needs to give performances like that only.

Pakistan’s bowling has been the biggest concern for them this World Cup, especially with Naseem Shah not being there. They haven’t looked at their best. Do you think it’s a sign of worry for them going ahead?

This concern was bound to happen. When you don’t manage the workload of your bowlers and make them all the international games along with franchise cricket, and county cricket, play them against small teams, this will happen. Why are we discussing about Naseem Shah? Even in his presence during the Asia Cup, the Indian team smashed 350 runs against us.

Don’t think Naseem is a big miss, even if he was there, the thinking of the management and captain will never be successful in this era until you make good decisions and come with full preparations. After thrashing the Asia Cup loss, you had 10-12 days to prepare but you didn’t do anything and went straight to the World Cup.

There should’ve been a camp where all the plans and strategies are made, issues are rectified. I have played 14-15 years of international cricket and have never seen non-serious management. Our management and captain are keeping themselves above cricket, they are thinking that they will move things according to themselves. This won’t work, you need to put in the hard work.

Also recently they lost against Afghanistan, which came due to poor bowling and it will no doubt hurt them a lot. Where do you feel they lacked against them?

Afghanistan played very well. But if it was some other team with good bowling other than Pakistan, they would’ve never let Afghanistan chase it. This World Cup hasn’t seen much high high-scoring encounters so there were talks that even 240-250 would be a match-winning score. But we made so much mess about the wicket ahead of the game.

Yes, our bowling is not in form but the blame should be on management as they didn’t read the wicket well. You are professional management, your captain got a fifty, and your opener got a fifty as well, can’t they tell others that 270-280 isn’t enough especially with our bowling not firing? Rashid and Mujeeb didn’t pick wickets, Noor Ahmad took three but it was all batter’s fault.

You try to score big, you were happy with 280. When you know that your bowling isn’t in form, pick momentum in batting and try to get 310-320. So that even if there’s a partnership they have to work hard to get close but we were happy that we got 280. Our new ball bowling wasn’t great. Any team, even the Netherlands, who had 130 opening stands would’ve chased the target.

Do you see Pakistan making a comeback in the tournament after the thrashing loss against Afghanistan?

You never know in cricket. We have a lot of belief in god and the almighty has always helped the team. If Pakistan wins all the games with good NRR, they might qualify. But to be honest, if Pakistan cricket has to get better, I feel that they shouldn’t qualify. If they won’t go ahead in the tournament then our cricket will improve and we will have time to think.

But if they qualify, you will see the same guys and, the same management making more blunders, which will affect Pakistan cricket. The damage which has been done in this World cricket is for everyone to see. Maybe our management and captain have got the eye opener finally and they know what do to next. But as a Pakistani, I feel the damage has been done even if we each semi-final.

Your predictions for semi-finalists, most runs, most wickets.

When the World Cup started, I predicted India, Pakistan, Australia and England. But for Pakistan and England, it’s very tough now. So for me, the semi-finalists will be India, New Zealand South Africa, and Australia.

For run-getters, I feel one among Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will end as top performers. They have been in terrific form and I’m enjoying their batting I don’t feel anyone will surpass them but you never know.

In bowling, Jasprit Bumrah will be there. Mitchell Santner has been bowling well, so one among them.

Tagged:

Babar Azam ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 ICC ODI World Cup 2023 ICC World Cup 2023 Kamran Akmal Pakistan National Cricket Team Sachin Tendulkar Virat Kohli
logo
Stay Updated with the Latest Cricket News from Cricket Addictor.

You will receive the latest updates on cricket news throughout the day. You can manage them whenever you need in browser settings.