Former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi challenged compatriot Wasim Akram, during a live telecast on Friday, for demanding that six to seven players should be ousted from the current team due to its dismal performance at the Champions Trophy on home turf.
Akram had been vocal that Pakistan should replace the underperformers with younger names to prepare for the T20 World Cup of 2026.
“Enough is enough. We are being defeated in white-ball cricket by these players for a couple of years now. This is the time to take a bold step. What is the bold step? Like Waqar Younis said, bring in young players, fearless cricketers, and hand them white-ball cricket,” Akram said in the Dressing Room.
While Afridi agreed that getting overtaken by emotions after the loss against India is normal, he lashed out at Akram for his remarks about dropping some of Pakistan’s stars altogether.
“I was listening to Wasim bhai that day. Yes, we all got carried away by emotions (after the loss to India). He said that 6-7 players need to be dropped from the side. Wasim bhai, I just have one question for you,” Afridi said, speaking on Samaa TV.
“Do you have 6-7 players who have been sitting on the bench waiting for their turn to replace these players? Players of that caliber in domestic cricket? Have we groomed them in the academies?” Afridi asked.
Without a single victory to their name in the tournament, Pakistan went out after the group stage. Their final match against Bangladesh at the group stage got washed out.
Days after the first ICC tournament started on home grounds after nearly three decades, irate fans are now calling for a cleaner change to be made to Pakistan’s cricket structure beginning from very top of the pyramid.
Following the return of the ICC tournament to Pakistan after almost 30 years, dissatisfied fans have been demanding sweeping changes in cricket within Pakistan starting from top to bottom.
This is the third ICC World Cup tournament in a row where Pakistan has crashed out early after last year’s T20 World Cup and the ICC ODI World Cup this year.
In a time when teams have gone quite bold, Pakistan seemed to be stuck in yore.
Pakistan’s plight was apparent, for they played 161 dot balls against New Zealand in Rawalpindi and 147 dot balls against India in Dubai, indicating no sense of urgency.
