Saddened by Pakistan’s pathetic show at the Champions Trophy, former captains Wasim Akram and Rameez Raja on Sunday lashed out at side’s “spineless” batting and said the time has come for rebuilding the team.
Pakistan lost all the three Group matches to crash out of the tournament. “What has really concerned me is that we could not play out our full quota of overs in even one match. The batting generally has been spineless and shameful. I think it is time changes were made in the team and youngsters were given proper chances to establish themselves,” Akram said.
Raja also called for hard decisions. “I was appalled and sad by the way our batsmen performed. For too long our bowlers have put their hands up and supported the batsmen. Unfortunately there is no balance between the two in our team and that is the major problem,” he said. “We must learn from India. For the first time in my life I was sure this Indian team will beat us. The time has come for changes and a new team to be rebuilt.”‘no role models in batting’
Former captain Zaheer Abbas has lamented the shortage of quality batsmen in Pakistan and said the absence of role models has led to the side’s woes in batting department. “The way I see it our poor batting performances in recent years can be put down to the fact that we are not producing role models for the new players,” Zaheer said.
“Tell me today who is the role model for young batsman in the team. In the past we had a line of top batsmen from generation to generation. When I came in I looked up to Hanif Muhammad and others when younger players came in they looked up to us,” he said. Zaheer referred to neighbouring India as the perfect example of how young players followed in the footsteps of quality role models.
“Today India has a wealth of quality batsmen why because they have maintained a culture of producing top line batsmen. Today players like Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or Suresh Raina know if they don’t live up to the standards set by their predecessors they will not survive for long in the team,” he said. “India produced quality batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, laxman and Ganguly and they all went at the right time leaving behind a legacy for new players to follow.”
‘Appoint Moody as coach’
Pakistan’s controversial former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar wants the PCB to appoint Australia’s Tom Moody as the coach of the national team. Shoaib said that having worked with Moody he could say for certain the former Australian all-rounder was capable of turning around the fortunes of Pakistan cricket.