MANCHESTER – The heroic team that defeated England in first Test of the Pak-England series at Lord’s frustrated its ardent supporters by clocking one of its worst performances during the second test at Old Trafford, vindicating the perception that consistency is something the green shirts lack completely.
Following the embarrassing 330-run defeat, former cricket legends are taking aim at the Pakistani team for a lack of strategy.
Speedster Shoaib Akhtar, alongside veterans Ramiz Raja, Muhammad Yousuf and Waqar Younis, all criticized the national team’s dismal performance on Monday in the second Test.
Akhtar said that he was very disappointed with the overall performance of the team, who were badly exposed by English players. “One saw no planning in the entire match from Pakistan’s perspective and as expected our batting was badly exposed by their bowlers,” he said. “You can also say our batting has been unmasked and exposed on a pitch which had bounce and nothing more.”
Taking the same line, top Pakistani commentator Ramiz Raja said the defeat was just a continuation of Pakistan cricket’s woes. He maintained that England deserved victory due to its performance.
“Our biggest problem is that our players just don’t adapt quickly enough to different conditions,” he said. “And the problem of consistency remains as usual. he added.
Muhammad Yousuf also lashed out at the lack of quality shown by Pakistan on a batting pitch.
“I expected players of the calibre of Younus Khan and Asad Shafiq to get hundreds here,” he said. “I just can’t fathom what Younus [Khan] was trying to do, batting the way he did.”
Former head coach Waqar Younis said that there was no excuse for the batting debacle.
“I am not saying we should have won this Test, but this is not the way to go down,” he said. “The spineless batting would have given the England bowlers a lot of confidence now.”
The third Test match will commence in Birmingham from August 3. Currently the four match series stands level at 1-1.
