Shoaib Akhtar: “Where was our intent? Where was the strategy? If Salman Ali Agha can show intent, then why can’t others do it? You were depending on Saim Ayub to win this tournament for you? Why can’t those players do it who have been playing for 10 years?”

Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani

Legendary Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has asked if the national team planned to depend on opening batsman Saim Ayub during the 2025 Champions Trophy.

Ayub had been in red-hot form in the lead-up to the tournament as he had scored three ODI centuries and a career-best 98 not out in T20Is. All these big scores came during Pakistan’s tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa.

However, the 22-year-old never got to feature in the Champions Trophy as he fractured his ankle during the two-Test series against the Proteas.

Ultimately, the men in green crashed out in the group stage of the competition as they lost to New Zealand and India, while their final match against Bangladesh was abandoned due to rain.

Akhtar was less than impressed with the lack of intent shown by the Pakistan batsmen and thus questioned if the team simply planned to have Ayub lead them to victory.

“Where was our intent? Where was the strategy? If Salman Ali Agha can show intent, then why can’t others do it? You were depending on Saim Ayub to win this tournament for you? Why can’t those players do it who have been playing for 10 years?” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.

Next up for Pakistan will be a limited overs tour of New Zealand, where they will play five T20Is and three ODIs from March 16 to April 5.

Pakistan Squad for T20I Series against New Zealand: Hasan Nawaz, Omair Yousuf, Mohammad Haris, Abdul Samad, Salman Ali Agha (captain), Irfan Khan Niazi, Khushdil Shah, Shadab Khan, Abbas Afridi, Jahandad Khan, Mohammad Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Sufiyan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed, Usman Khan

Pakistan Squad for ODI Series against New Zealand: Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Salman Ali Agha, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Akif Javed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Irfan Khan Niazi, Naseem Shah, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir

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