News Desk |
A day before the Afghanistan Pakistan clash in the World Cup tournament, Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistan’s fastest bowler and renowned cricket commentator, sent out a message for the Afghan cricket team.
https://twitter.com/AsharJawad/status/1144700234217467904
Akhtar said, “Afghanistan plays in Dehradun, their home ground is now Dehradun, once it used to be Peshawar, and today it is Dehradun. Once it used to be in Peshawar and Pindi and we would train the Afghan boys but now they prefer Delhi.”
Afghan Team Bashed
The former cricketer continued, “The Afghan team is a good team, India has invested a great deal however, one thing that India could not inject in this team is a sense of maturity.”
Akhtar stressed that he was always confident that the Pakistani team will enter the semi-finals despite heavy criticism.
Shoaib Akhtar continued that a sense of maturity in batting is important; however there is another important, yet, controversial aspect that needs to be addressed. Akhtar said, “If we take out all the ID cards of the players in the Afghan cricket team, they will be originated from Peshawar, and this team can be banned as well.”
Shoaib Akhtar issued a public warning to all those from Afghanistan and elsewhere who are sharing malignant comments and launching tirades against Pakistan. He said, ‘All your ID cards will be checked and they will turn out to be from Peshawar or Karachi, causing your entire team to get banned. Please, don’t do this.”
He continued, “We love Afghanistan. We love the people of Afghanistan. We want peace and we wanted to help you out. We have embraced and housed 3 million Afghan migrants, and we still love you and own you.”
However, referring to the scheduled match Shoaib stated, “Tomorrow, there will be no love between us. Because tomorrow we have to bash Afghanistan and win two points. A mission we will accomplish.”
Read more: World Cup: Afghanistan v Pakistan match gets political
In response to Afghan team’s CO’s statement asking the Pakistani team to learn cricket from the Afghans, Akhtar retorted, “Tomorrow, we will teach Afghanistan how cricket is played, and the CO will also learn from this lesson.”
Commenting on the frequent changes in the CO for the Afghan cricket team, Shoaib Akhtar advised them to “get your house in order” and then talk about a country that has helped you for 30-40 years in handling the refugee crisis.
“We are Going to Crush You”
After giving his “political statements”, renowned Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar moved towards his cricket advice. He said, “We are going to crush you tomorrow, as simple as that, we are going to take away those two points.”
Akhtar said that obtaining those two points will make the challenge much easier for the Pakistani cricket team, and both teams should facilitate each other in giving their absolute best on the field. Akhtar stressed that he was always confident that the Pakistani team will enter the semi-finals despite heavy criticism. He said, “All is not lost, and tomorrow, we will bash Afghanistan and in the future, we will compete against Bangladesh.”
Read more: There is still hope for Pakistan cricket team
Explaining the tough competition with New Zealand, a team that doesn’t have much to lose, Shoaib Akhtar stressed that it is important for Pakistan to win two matches and bash Afghanistan on the field, while India must make sure England loses. He added, “I believe that there will be a semi-final between India and Pakistan, a match that the entire world wants to see.”
Shoaib Akhtar stressed that the Pakistani team must include Shoaib Malik in the coming two matches in place of Hafeez and before Sarfaraz would benefit the team with a strong batting line-up. He stressed that the Pakistani team is in need of singles-doubles and rotation of strike, which Malik can provide.