Ramiz Raja had praised Naseem Shah for his batting and said he can do better.
Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and chose to bat first and put on 312 in the first innings with Dhananjaya de Silva making 122 and Angelo Mathews scoring 64 runs. For Pakistan, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, and Abrar Ahmed picked three wickets each.
In reply, Pakistan posted 461 runs with Saud Shakeel hammering his maiden Test double ton and remaining unbeaten on 208 and Agha Salman making 83 runs. For Sri Lanka, Ramesh Mendis took a fifer and Prabath Jayasuriya took three wickets.
Meanwhile, as Pakistan was trying to get a big lead over Sri Lanka, Naseem Shah aided Saud Shakeel by playing 78 balls for his 6 runs.
Ramiz Raja, former Pakistan captain, and PCB chief, discussed Naseem’s ability to bat and said: “Naseem doesn't have any problem developing the batting muscle.”
However, his fellow commentator and former Pakistan captain Aamer Sohail retorted: “There is another muscle he needs to develop, the brain muscle. He will become a better cricketer and bowler.”
This mocking tone of Sohail in regard to one of the most talented cricketers in the country led to a serious debate on social media.
Fans were not happy with Sohail mocking Naseem and reminded him of his follies. Especially, when he was clean bowled by Venkatesh Prasad in the 1996 World Cup quarterfinals in Bengaluru, after he had mocked the Indian pacer by hitting him for a four the previous ball.
Here are some tweets: