Asia Cup 2018: Pakistan will make a strong comeback in the tournament, says Shoaib Akhtar

Pakistan and India already qualified for the Super Four stage and will meet again on Sunday.

India outclassed Pakistan, says Shoaib Akhtar | Getty Images

Shoaib Akhtar felt that Pakistan seemed in hurry in their crucial Asia Cup 2018 league match against India and as a result committed a lot of mistakes which ultimately cost them the game. 

In a one-sided contest, Rohit Sharma-led Indian team showed their maturity and brilliantly outclassed Pakistan by eight wickets in the low scoring encounter in Dubai.

Akhtar believes that losing against India will teach the national players many crucial factors of the game. He is also confident that Pakistan will make a strong comeback in the ongoing tournament after a dismal performance on Wednesday. 

Former Pakistan paceman also feels that the batsmen need to play complete 50 overs to win such big games in the tournament.

Shoaib told Geo News on Thursday (September 20), “It appeared that Pakistan was in a hurry. I don’t think that there was a rush required in the game. They don’t need to demoralize. We have to tell our batsmen that they have to stay at the crease and play complete 50 overs.”

He also stressed on the need of attacking bowling and smart captaincy from Sarfraz Ahmed to change the fortunes of Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup 2018.

Akhtar signed off by saying, “Loss will give you learnings. No need to demoralize to achieve big things. However, India played well. The bowled outclass, batted with maturity. Look at Rohit Sharma, he is very flawless and didn’t let the middle-order to expose. Meanwhile, Pakistan also picked wrong fast bowlers. They would have gone with Shaheen Shah Afridi, who could have yielded success.”

 
 

By Rashmi Nanda - 21 Sep, 2018

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