Pakistan suffered a shocking first-round exit in the recently concluded T20 World Cup.
Out-of-favour Pakistan batter Ahmad Shahzad has slammed wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan for playing 'religion' card to divert the talks around his poor performance in the recently concluded T20 World Cup.
While addressing a press conference in Peshawar on July 2, Rizwan reflected on Pakistan and his individual showing in the marquee event.
Rizwan had a dismal T20 World Cup campaign, amassing 110 runs from four innings at an underwhelming strike rate of 90.90. On the other hand, the Men in Green suffered a shocking first-round exit after losing to debutants USA and arch-rivals India.
Rizwan conceded that the scrutiny of the team is justified. However, he also made a bizarre comment, calling himself as the "brand ambassador of islam".
"I believe that a human being is a brand ambassador of two things. If a person is a Muslim, he represents Islam wherever he goes. 2nd thing is that he is a brand ambassador of Pakistan. It doesn't matter what anyone says," Rizwan told reporters.
His comments, however, didn’t go sit well with Shahzad, who took to social media platform X and launched a scathing attack on Rizwan for using ‘religion’ as a shield.
"It is really disappointing that some players are hiding their poor performance in the World Cup by holding unnecessary press conferences and playing the religion card. Where does religion go when they lie about their fitness and when they admit they were acting on the field? Does religion teach you to deceive others and lie in the field? You are paid to perform on the field, and you join the grouping in the team instead. Religion teaches us to fulfill our responsibility with full determination and not to lie about our suffering. Some spokespeople for these players want them to be given another chance, but why? This is the Pakistan team, and it is not their home team where they can play. If they want another chance, they can make their own team and play with their friends, but not for the Pakistan cricket team anymore," Shahzad explained in a lengthy post on X.
Ahmad Shahzad also asked the Pakistan Cricket Board to take strict actions against the players.
"We will not let PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi forget the big surgery he promised. Some players of the Pakistani team are now even mocking the chairman's statement because they don't care. But we will make sure that fans get their answers and action is taken against these players. We have taken a stand, and we will not back down until this Pakistan team is back on the right track," he added.
After the T20 World Cup debacle, Pakistan head coach Gary Kirsten blasted the team saying that there is 'no unity' in the side and he has 'never seen such a situation' in his long coaching career.
“There’s no unity in Pakistan’s team. They call it a team, but it isn’t a team. They aren’t supporting each other; everyone is separated, left and right. I’ve worked with many teams, but I’ve never seen such a situation,” Kirsten was quoted as saying by Geo News.