After a disappointing ICC T20 World Cup, Pakistan followed it up with an ODI series loss to Bangladesh. In the final ODI of the series, Pakistan opted to bowl first and ended up conceding 290/5 from 50 overs, chasing those runs despite heroics from Salman Agha; the visitors could not get over the line as they could only manage 279. Former Pakistan cricket did not mince his words in his assessment of Pakistan’s words and tore into them, saying at this rate, how will the side progress?
“You have lost the match. What experiments are you doing? It was a good pitch. Why did you choose to bowl? Why didn’t you bat? They would have scored 350. Litton Das was slow in the end, that’s why Bangladesh got restricted to 290. It was a series decider. When you do not win the series against teams, how will you progress? ICC trophy chori karke leke aani hai? ( You plan to steal the ICC trophy?),” Akmal said Game plan
“For god’s sake, think about Pakistan cricket. Just see the levels we have gone down to. The Netherlands must be thinking that if they get to play a three-match ODI series against Pakistan, they can attain Test status, as they can also beat us. You have made a mockery of your cricket. You people just don’t care,” Akmal added.
“Yeah, of course, there was always improvement and we also come here and they play international cricket and you need international cricket a little bit. You know, more hard work and you have to be fit in all three departments. But yeah, they are youngster [youngsters] and they played first international series. So we will back them and they played really good cricket,” Shaheen Shah Afridi said after the game.
Pakistan was thrashed in the first ODI but made a comeback in the second ODI, but could not follow it up in the final ODI.
