Watch: Shoaib Akhtar lashes out on India as they lose their semifinal game against England
Shoaib Akhtar (Image Credit: Twitter)
After India’s semifinal exit, former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has lashed out at the Men In Blue. Apparently, the Rohit Sharma-led bowlers failed to take a single wicket and lost the game by 10 wickets with four overs left. Batting first, India scored 167/6 at the end of the innings. In reply, the 2010 winners scored 1970/0 in 16 overs with Alex Hales and Jos Buttler half-centuries. After the game, the 47-year-old posted a video and said that the team deserved to lose as they had many weaknesses.
Watch the video here
Embarrassing loss for India. Bowling badly exposed. No meet up in Melbourne unfortunately. pic.twitter.com/HG6ubq1Oi4
— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) November 10, 2022
On the other hand, he showed support for Irfan Pathan for which he extended his apologies after a while. In reply to the tweet. Akhtar wrote ‘Aray kya ho gaya bro? Kisi nay kuch kaha hai toh mujhe bata. Main daantoon ga. Promise.’ In reply, Pathan said ‘Haha. Thodi badatamizi stadium mein or uska reaction. Baaki u know me manage to hum hi karte hai. Lots of love brother.’
Aray kya ho gaya bro? Kisi nay kuch kaha hai toh mujhe bata. Main daantoon ga. Promise.
— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) November 10, 2022
Haha. Thodi badatamizi stadium mein or uska reaction. Baaki u know me manage to hum hi karte hai. Lots of love brother.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) November 10, 2022
Rohit Sharma blames poor bowling for the loss
After the game, the India skipper spoke in the post-match ceremony, he said “It’s pretty disappointing how we turned up today. I thought we still batted pretty well at the back end to get to that score, but we were not good enough with the ball. It was definitely not a wicket where a team can come and chase it down in 16 overs. With the ball we didn’t turn up today. When it comes to knockout stages, it’s all about handling the pressure. Depends on the individual as well. You can’t teach anyone to handle pressure. When these guys play the playoffs in the IPL and all that, those are high-pressure games, and they’re able to handle it.
The way we started with the ball was not ideal. We were a little nervy, but you have to give credit to the openers as well. They played really well. When Bhuvi bowled the first over it swung today, but not from the right areas. We wanted to keep it tight, not give room, because square of the wicket was an area we were aware of – that’s where the runs came today. If we keep it tight and the batsman still score runs, we’ll take it. But we didn’t do that today. In the game against Bangladesh it was tricky as well, but I thought we held our nerve that day, executed well.”
