NEW DELHI: After legendary Pakistan bowler Wasim Akram criticised
Shaheen Afridi
‘s move to promote himself at No.5 in
Pakistan Super League
(
PSL
) matches, former captain
Inzamam-ul-Haq
has also raised questions about
Lahore Qalandars
skipper’s decision to bat up the order.
Inzamam lambasted Shaheen for batting at No. 5 during Lahore Qalandar’s PSL encounter against
Quetta Gladiators
on Sunday.
Shaheen found himself in the crossfire of Inzamam’s criticism despite notching up a quickfire half-century off 28 balls. The former Pakistan captain expressed concern that the captain and Abdullah Shafique had used up too many deliveries.
Inzamam also opined that Lahore Qalandars looked set to post more than 200 but they ended up scoring only 166/7.
“This partnership between Abdullah Shafique and Shaheen Afridi… if you look at the scorecard, then it looks very impressive, scoring 55 off 34 balls and the other scoring 59 off 39 balls. But the scorecard doesn’t do justice to it. They played all the overs – almost 14 – and all you could take the total to was 167, whereas it should have been 200-plus. Did anyone feel that Lahore will be able to win from here? Or will Lahore defend it?” Inzamam said on a Pakistan channel.
“Shaheen coming in to bat at No. 5 but scoring at that pace is not good for the team. When you have specialists such as David Wiese and Sikandar Raza, the score could have been better. Oh bhai… tez khel (Boss, score faster). They need to take care of one big fact. If you start getting into individual efforts, the team’s cause will go for a toss,” he added.
Before this match, Shaheen also batted at No.5 but his ploy backfired as he got dismissed for only 1 against Karachi Kings. This led to criticism from Akram, targeting the Pakistan T20I skipper.
“Shaheen scored 1 off 3, while Raza scored 22 off 16 & Wiese 24 off 9. They took the score to 177. It’s not mandatory that if you are captain you have to come out to bat. Observe the situation & whether there are better players & hitters in the dugout. If Shaheen had done that maybe they would have made 190. “Shaheen needs to be told that he hasn’t become an all-rounder yet,” Akram had said.